Irish Coast

The Irish Atlantic coast from Donegal south to Cork was, through the medieval and Tudor periods, a regional maritime theatre managed by the Gaelic chieftain families whose territories met the sea — among them the Ó Máilles (O’Malleys) of Mayo, the O’Flahertys of Connemara, the McCarthy Mors of west Cork, and the O’Driscolls of Baltimore. The clan economy combined fishing, coastal trade, the levying of customary tolls on passing shipping, and outright raiding as political conditions allowed. The English administration in Dublin treated the clans’ maritime activity as piracy in the late sixteenth century; under Gaelic Irish law it was the legitimate exercise of chieftain authority. The career of Grace O’Malley straddles the period when the two framings could no longer coexist.