My O’Malley cousins and
family might enjoy some photos we took when we visited County Mayo in
2006. We spent a week on a guided tour
through the Irish Free State and visited all the typical tourist sites. Then we spent five days in Westport, which
that year won the title of Ireland’s “Tidiest City”. It is near the center of County Mayo and one
of the two largest cities in County Mayo.
While there we visited several sites associated with the history of the
O’Malley clan and of the famous Irish Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley—also known
as “Grainuaile”.
We visited two of the
Tower Houses that Grace reportedly used for her seafaring operations, Rockfleet
Castle and Clare Island Castle.
Rockfleet sits on an inlet to the North Sea just to the northwest of Newport
in County Mayo; while Clare Island is located about 20 miles west of Westport
at the entrance to Clew Bay. We took
about a 20 minute ferry ride on The O’Malley Ferry. There was a competitor ferry company; but we
obviously had to take the O’Malley ferry.
It was from these sites that Grace and her fellow pirates patrolled the
west coast of Ireland. She didn’t view
herself as a Pirate, only a good citizen protecting the territorial sea rights
of her county.
Rockfleet Castle
Clare Island Castle
On Clare Island was
located an Abbey with a surrounding cemetery.
In walking through the cemetery it was obvious that a lot of O’Malley’s
lived there, as an estimated two-thirds of the headstones belonged to O’Malley’s. Inside of the Abbey I was delighted to find
the O’Malley Family Crest imprinted into the wall near the alter. Enroute to the abbey we passed the main and
only B&B on the Island. You guessed it—the “Grainuaile House B&B” named after Grace O'Malley.
Grainuaile House B&B
O’Malley Crest
While in Westport, we stayed in a lovely
B&B that was within walking distance of the center of
town. The first night there we found a
great Pub by the name of O’Malley’s—what else did you expect! Irelands national rugby matches were in process
while we were there so that was on every TV in every Pub in town.
O'Malley's Pub
The food and ambiance were so good we ate
there two of the five nights we were in Westport. They had music in the evenings which was
advertised to start at 9 p.m. We learned
the Irish aren’t too big on being prompt.
The musicians started arriving about 9 p.m.; but by the time they tuned
up and started, it was 9:45 p.m. We told
our hosts at the B&B that we loved the music; but the hours were a little
late for our schedule. She suggested we
try a pub near the quay on Sunday, when they start at 3:30 p.m. That was more to our liking.
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