The Pirate Queen

At her castle in Bunowen, a 35-year-old Grace receives a wounded messenger who reports that Grace’s husband, Donal O’Flaherty, has been killed by the rival Joyce clan at Cock’s Castle. The messenger is later revealed to be Connor, the brother of Rory O’Flaherty, sent to lure Grace away so that Rory, Donal’s cousin, could seize the castle. Aware that her rivals will try to claim the strategic fortress, Grace sends her children away for safety and sails with reinforcements to defend it. 

Anticipating a night assault under the cover of a storm, she orders her men to melt the lead flashing from the castle roof to pour on the invaders. The attack comes as predicted, and her forces repel the Joyces with arrows and molten lead, also burning their escape boats. Grace wounds the enemy leader, Seán Joyce, with a thrown dagger to his sword-arm shoulder; after he proposes marriage and laughs, she clips his left ear with another dagger, and he retreats. In honor of her victory, her men rename the fortress “Hen’s Castle.”

During the return journey across Lough Corrib, Grace’s men board and capture an English merchant vessel, The Mary Fortune. Grace returns to Bunowen aboard it to find that Rory has usurped the castle in her absence. He declares himself chieftain and gives Grace an ultimatum: marry him or be evicted. When she refuses, he strips her of all property. Grace leaves, but over a hundred of her loyal followers abandon Rory to go with her, escaping on The Mary Fortune.

Grace, now 57, is returning from Scotland with 300 Gallowglass mercenaries for her son-in-law, Richard “Hook” Bourke. Using a hereditary “Sense” passed down from her father, Grace predicts a violent, unseasonable storm, much to the disbelief of her first mate, Ultan. The storm hits suddenly, running all three ships aground on the coast of Ulster and killing 11 men across the fleet. Ultan says that it will take three months to repair the ships. Stranded, Grace realizes that she must march the mercenaries overland through the territory of the Ulster chieftains.

Grace meets with Hugh O’Neill and Hugh O’Donnell at Dungannon Castle to request safe passage. The chieftains reveal that they’re secretly planning a major rebellion against the English, timed to coincide with a rumored invasion by the Spanish Armada. They grant Grace’s request for passage on one condition: She must pledge the full military support of Connaught’s major clans to their cause when the time comes. Grace agrees, entering into a dangerous new alliance.

Eleven-year-old Grace is sent by her father to fetch Donal. At his cottage, Donal’s resentful mother, Aisling, holds a knife to Grace’s throat, cutting her slightly before Donal intervenes. After Grace frees Donal’s dog, Bran, from a tether, the siblings go to the tower house. 

Eóin takes them out on a small ketch into the open ocean for a test. He asks both children to predict the weather. Donal sees only clear skies and predicts a fair day. Grace, however, senses a coming storm through a combination of natural signs and an internal premonition that includes the smell of wet earth and the sound of distant, running horses.

Eóin immediately turns the boat back toward land as a severe storm rolls in. That night, Eóin tells Maeve that Grace has inherited the full power of the Sense, a gift that skips generations and is rare in a girl. He confesses that he fears for her future, as the gift will put her in constant danger.

Grace returns to Clare Island on the captured ship, The Mary Fortune, with over a hundred of her displaced followers. She is reunited with her children but learns that her father is dying. 

At his bedside, Eóin tells Grace that because she possesses the Sense, she must take command of the O’Malley fleet. He then convenes the clan leaders, who deliberate and reach a consensus before Eóin performs the formal oath ceremony, declaring his son, Donal, the new O’Malley. This is revealed to have been a strategic plan: The clan would accept Donal as their land-based leader as long as Grace, the superior mariner, controlled their power at sea. At the celebration, Aisling confronts Grace, but Donal publicly sides with his sister, declaring that Clare Island belongs to her.

After Eóin dies that night, the family holds his funeral at St. Brigid’s Abbey. There, Grace is shocked to see Richard Bourke, who has come to pay his respects. He’s accompanied by a young son, Edmund, whose existence he has never mentioned in his letters. The revelation devastates Grace, who had harbored feelings for him for years.

A ship from the Spanish Armada, El Gran Grin, wrecks on Clare Island. Grace, now 58, finds over 100 survivors, led by Commander Don Pedro de Mendoza. She is hesitant to help since harboring Spaniards has been declared treason by the English. Her decision is complicated when the ruthless English Governor of Connaught, Sir Richard Bingham, arrives on the island, brought by Grace’s own son Merrick.

Bingham confronts Grace, demanding that she turn over any survivors. She lies, insisting that they all drowned and were buried in a mass grave. Skeptical, Bingham leaves to inspect the wreckage. During an argument, Finn stops Merrick from striking a furious Grace. 

That night, Grace secretly transports the Spanish survivors by ship to Burrishoole Castle, where she proposes moving them onward to Doona Castle in Blacksod Bay. She tasks Hook with selling their salvaged cargo to fund the fight against the English.