Grainne O’Malley

In this special live episode, recorded at the 2023 Hay Festival, Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Gillian Kenny and comedian Seán Burke to learn about medieval Irish folklore.Greg and his guests discuss the lore and stories from Gaelic Irish culture. Gaelic culture remained the domina ...  Show more

Greg Jenner is joined in medieval Spain by historian Professor Nora Berend and comedian Toussaint Douglass to learn about the colourful life and afterlife of the warrior known as El Cid. El Cid – real name Rodrigo Díaz – was a mercenary in eleventh-century Spain who fought for bo ...  Show more

Grace O'Malley or Granuaile is an iconic name in Irish history. Born in 1530, she emerged as a powerful leader in the West of Ireland in ruthless and violent era as the Tudor reconquest of the Island was in full swing. Grace is often called a pirate queen, a chieftain or even ...

Grace O’Malley (c. 1530-1603) is known as the iconic, pirate queen of Ireland. She is remembered through folklore as a skilled ship captain, a notorious rebel against the English monarchy, and a fierce pirate. Further Reading Grace O'Malley: The Pirate Queen of Ireland The extrao ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests John Mullan, Karen O'Brien and Barbara Taylor discuss the life and ideas of the pioneering British Enlightenment thinker Mary Wollstonecraft.Mary Wollstonecraft was born in 1759 into a middle-class family whose status steadily sank as her inept, brutal, dr ...  Show more

Gráinne O'Malley (often known as Grace O'Malley) has gone down in history as The Pirate Queen. Born into the powerful, seafaring O'Malley clan in western Ireland, she took to the pirate's life at a young age. Basically, everything a woman wasn't supposed to do at the time, Gráinn ...  Show more