Born in 1530, the Pirate Queen Granuaile was raised in an Ireland where English law was usurping Gaelic sovereignty. She refused to submit to authority and raided merchant ships bound for Galway Bay. According to legend, she fought off English troops besieging her stronghold by melting the roof and pouring molten lead on her attackers. The stories of her resistance, spread by ballad singers for centuries, became a symbol for Irish nationalism. Irish-American folk singer Dan Milner adapted one such political broadside, "Granuaile," for Smithsonian Folkways' newly released "Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea."
Hear the Granuaile and The Ballad of Ó Bruadair / Out on the Ocean
Music courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways, the non-profit record label of the Smithsonian Institution
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