2 40 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



lost heart, and sent to her for help. She cursed them, tied a blanket about 

 her, and came up jumping and dancing with a " blunder-bush " in each hand. 

 The Turks crowded to look at her, and when the officers were in a group, she 

 fired, shot them all, captured their ship, and hanged all the crew at Carrick 

 a howly. She was very proud of her warriors, and preferred a ship full of 

 them to one full of gold. She besieged O'Loughlin of Burren, Co. Clare, but 

 a cannon shot tore up the ground at her feet, and the clan mustered and put 

 her to flight. She reduced much of Connacht by the aid of the Burkes, who 

 elected her son to be Mac William Iochtair ; and after all her raids, she died 

 a natural death. Her favourite imprecation is said to have been " May you 

 be twelve times worse this day twelve months," which the legend says she 

 used to her own crew during the fight with the corsair and to O'Loughlin's 

 gunner, adding to the latter, " It 's well you haven't knocked me down." A long 

 legend is told of her attempts to seize tribute from the MacAwleys or 

 Stauntons, from whom she captured Kinturk, but she was repelled from 

 Luppertaun Castle. 1 



In 1839, the following legendary history of Grama Uaile was told to 

 Caesar Otway. She was the daughter of Breamhaun Crone O'Maille, 2 chief 

 of the district round Clew Bay, " the Uisles of O'Mealy " ; he died leaving a 

 daughter Crania and an infant son. Crania soon persuaded the clan to 

 accept her rule, which she strengthened by a marriage with OTlaherty. 

 She built Hen's Castle, or " Cashlaun na Kirka " ; thither she carried off the 

 son of the Earl of Howth, to revenge the latter's want of hospitality, and 

 she encouraged her husband, "The Cock," in his constant wars with the 

 Joyces, till she got the nickname of "The Hen," whence her castle got 

 its name. 3 At last the Joyces made a causeway and took the " Hen's 

 Castle."' Some say they killed its inmates, but all agree that Grania escaped, 

 and on her first husband's death married Mac William Eighter (Sir Bichard 

 an Iarainn Burke). They married " for a year certain," then either could 

 divorce the other. 5 Grania waited till she had got her supporters into all 

 her husband's castles; then she went to Carrigahowly near Newport, and 

 waited his arrival. Mac William came up to the castle, and Grania looked 



1 See Ordnance Survey Letters, Co. Mayo, vol. i, pp. 1-9, and vol. ii, pp. 249-264. The last 

 (the original letter) gives a long legend of the death of her son Tibbot, but it is irrelevant to Cliara. 

 - Really " Doodara," the O'Mailly of Murrisk. 



3 Of course there is a divergent legend to account for the name. 



4 Otway's "Tour in Connaught " (1S39), pp. 229-245. 



6 Grania herself states (Cal. State Papers Ireland, 1593, No. 62) "husbands now and then divorce 

 their wives on precontracts, and even put their wives away without any lawful proceedings, and 

 bring in others " ; but the State Papers seem to show that her relations with Richard an Iarainn Bourke 

 were more lasting than legend implies. 



