Enjoy The Wild Irish Presented By Robin Maxwell Visible In Softcover

book was completely awesome, I can't say enough about how good it was, And I know that there are other people who weren't that thrilled with it, cuz I guess it wasn't as historically accurate as they would've liked.
This is a work of fiction that just happens to use actual historical figures, Of course liberties were taken, Nowhere does it say that this is nonfiction,

The first half is Grace O'Malley telling her lifestory to Elizabeth I how so many crazy things happened to her, and yet she still remained a titan of influence.
I thought this was the most interesting part of the book, and was surprised to find out how little is actually known about O'Malley and her life.


The second half is made up of the end of the life of Lord Essex, and all of the bad decisions and insanity that swirled around him.
He went from in the beginning being the queen's favorite, to being sent to Ireland to quench the rebellion, finding some sympathy for the Irish, and then, deciding on leading a coupe against the queen for which he was executed.
It was interesting to see the man spiral out of control, Dont Get Mom Angry
By Bob Gelms
The Wild Irish: A Novel of Elizabeth I and the Pirate O'Malley by Robin Maxwell is an epic tale of the collision of the two most powerful women of theth century, Elizabeth I and Grace OMalley.
One is English and the other has the honor to be Irish, Ms. Maxwell has written a novel with a very strong foundation in history, This is, essentially, the story of how Elizabeth attempted to quash the Irish uprising at the end of her reign, an Irish revolt led by Grace OMalley, Queen of the Irish Rebellion and the Pirate Queen of Ireland
The novel covers one of the most famous incidents in Irish history.
To control the wild Irish Queen, Elizabeth appointed a governor for each of the four ancient provinces, One of them, Connacht Province, has five counties, one of which is County Mayo, the seat of Graces kingdom, It's governor, Richard Bingham, was a card carrying sadistic sociopath with a deep hatred for the Irish people, Bingham only hated one thing more than he hated the Irish, Grace OMalley herself, He appropriated a huge chunk of her land, her herd of cattle and one of her castles, Oh yeah, he also kidnapped her son and her brother and held them for ransom, As a pirate, Grace commandedships, In addition to the sailors, she had a small army ofmen under her command, Richard Bingham had just shaken the biggest hornets nest in Ireland,
Grace took her flagship and sailed it right up the Thames, docked at Greenwich Castle, and demanded an audience with the Queen.
Now, this is a woman that most Englishmen would love to see beheaded, Grace had some pretty big cojones, figuratively,
The Queen stunned the court by granting the interview, Elizabeth didnt speak Irish and Grace didnt speak English, so, these two incredible women hammered out an agreement by conversing in Latin.
Every bit of this is historical fact, What comes next is not, Elizabeth invites Grace to stay the night and they retire to the Queens bedroom where Grace tells the Queen her lifes story.
The facts of her life are true but the setting never happened,
The rest of the book is a mixture of the Queens effort to put down the rebellion in Ireland, and Graces efforts to support the uprising.
Then, enter the Earl of Essex whose real name is Robert Devereux, The Queen sent him with an overpowering army to defeat the Irish rebels, Essex was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland that's equivalent to Supreme Allied Commander, Essex had at least two, maybe three, opportunities to defeat the Irish in what would have been described as a rout, but for some completely mysterious reason he negotiated a treaty.
Nothing was written down. The two commanders met in the middle of an open field and verbally came to an agreement that lasted three months, Essexs career was finished. He was disgraced. Now comes the juicy part,
It was very heavily rumored that Essex was a favorite of the Queen, They supposedly had a hot affair that lasted quite some time, Thats right, the Virgin Queen, While still in the good pun alert graces of the Queen, Grace OMalley and the Earl of Essex had a number of, um, uh, assignations, giving a whole new meaning to “comforting the enemy.
” Its more likely Grace was using her feminine whiles to spy on the enemy and gather whatever intelligence she could, By the time he went to Ireland the affair was over and Essex had taken to finding his pleasure anywhere he could.
Consequently, he contracted what was called the French pox, LOL. He was very sick in Ireland and a lot of his military decisions were made while in the grip of the disease.

Elizabeth, daughter of Ann Boleyn and Henry VIII, had one important goal she wanted to achieve, She wanted to complete the subjugation of Ireland, something her father started but didnt finish, The Irish finally surrendered but, in a sublime irony, it was three days after Elizabeth died, Grace is said to have died a few months later in her castle in County Mayo, The Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, died from complications due to the French pox,
Wild Irish: A Novel of Elizabeth I and the Pirate O'Malley by Robin Maxwell is a very clever mix of history and fiction.
And let me just say you will enjoy the read even if you arent Irish,

If halfwere permitted, I'd have given this,, but I rounded up

Elizabethan England seen through the eyes of Grace OMalley, the notorious female pirate and gunrunner history remembers as “The Mother of the Irish Rebellion.
” The story revolves around the historic meeting of Queen Elizabeth I and Grace at a time when both women were in their early sixties.
Maxwell posits that Graces public audience with the Queen was accompanied by a secret, more intimate meeting between the two rivals wherein Grace tells the Queen the story of her life.
In so doing, the story of the British subjugation of Ireland and the ensuing Irish uprisings is revealed as well, It is a fascinating history, but at times Maxwells approach seems more that of an historian than a storyteller, particularly in the first third of the book.
The history lesson is seasoned with Graces personal anecdotes and editorializing on the people and events described, but more of this was needed to help the pacing.


That being said, the book is still worth reading for anyone interested in the events of the early days of the Irish Rebellion and those leading up to Elizabeths final days on the throne.
Although the Irish issue is an oftoverlooked aspect of Elizabeths reign, Maxwell demonstrates quite convincingly that it might well have been one of the most important to the Queen herself.
It is pointed out in an authors note that the IrishEnglish conflict was by far the largest of Elizabeths wars, the most costly in terms of English lives lost, and the last significant effort of her reign.
From the Irish perspective, the significance of this period is even greater, as some estimates indicate half the entire population of Ireland died during the rebellion through battle, famine, and disease.


Once Graces historical reminiscences come to a close, the pacing of the final twothirds of the book picks up significantly.
The focus also increasingly includes the tumultuous lovehate relationship between Elizabeth and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, whose perilous mix of passion and political ambition threatened to throw the royal court into chaos.
A colorful cast of secondary characters including Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Robert Cecil, the ruthless Richard Bingham, Graces son Tibbot ne Long Burke, and the rebel leaders Red Hugh ODonnell and Hugh ONeill, Earl of Tyrone, adds context and allows events to be seen from multiple, often diametrically opposed perspectives.
Maxwell might have done well, however, to remain focused on fewer personalities, as several of them never seem sufficiently developed,

In the end, the novel felt somewhat overly ambitious in scope, but Maxwells prose is clear and her knowledge of the subject exhaustive.
Though flawed, it's a wellresearched, diverting read, This is a story of two women perfectly matched in guts: Elizabeth, Queen of England, at the age ofmeets the notorious Irish Rebel, Grace OMalley, age.


: Grace OMalley sails to London, Once docked at the castle quay, she demands an audience with Elizabeth, Tibbot Burke, Graces son, is in custody of Richard Binghm, held at Dublin Castle, Bingham threatens to hang Burke, Grace comes to ask her Majesty a pardon for her son,

Later the same night, Elizabeth requests a private audience with Grace, Elizabeth, never set her foot outside her island, and now wants to hear a story of “a woman with the soul of a man.
with the wealth of experience in the wide world, ” Thus, the story of the Irish Rebel is revealed,

The story is intertwined with the third historical figure of Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, atalready a great lord of England and Elizabeths undisputed favorite his military exploits already the stuff of legend.
“But his current financial embarrassment is acute, He has inherited nothing but debt from his father”

Elizabeth is determined to establish English legal system in Ireland, Essex, who is in financial disrepair, and now after meeting Grace OMalley, sees opportunity in Ireland,

With introduction of Robert Devereaux, a lot of other names are introduced, which is a bit hard to follow all those names.


Most of Graces story is very engaging, but there are parts filled with battles and after a while it becomes a pretty dry read.


Overall, the story is overwhelmed with historical names and facts, The interesting character of Grace gets covered up with her own story the longer she tells her story the more she gets buried in it.


The most interesting facts about Grace:

At the Abbey of Murrisk, she receives her wider education the Latin.
“The monks there tutored me, and though they were kind and finally grew to love me, they thought it mad to teach a little girl the likes of the Roman language.
”

At the age of, she marries Donal OFlaherty despite her attempts to forestall the inevitable losing the freedoms to travel.
She is not good with her household chores, “those which my mother had tried relentlessly to instill in me, ”

Despite her sex and her motherhood, there is no point of denying what she was forced to suppress for so long.
“Id been bread to the sea and the sea was my destiny, ” She doesnt mind fishing, but she craves exotic lands, And when needed, she also proves to be a skillful warrior on land, fighting a siege and leading it to victory,

FB/BestHistoricalFiction As much as is made of England's conflict with Spain and the sinking of the Armada during Elisabeth's rule, the war with the Irish was longer and more costly in English lives, and yet you don't hear much about it.
This perspective on the later years of her reign, centered as it is around the Irish conflict, is unusual and fascinating and Grace is an amazing character whose actual life has likewise been neglected in histories of the time.
I've read several historical novels with Elizabeth I as main character but never heard of Grace O'Malley, her Irish "pirate queen" contemporary.
But Grace O'Malley is a documented historical person, who actually had a meeting with Elizabeth to ask for the release of her imprisoned sons.
The novel is set mostly in western Ireland, where Grace O'Malley has independence as the daughter and wife of Irish clan leaders.
This was the time period when Ireland had its best chance to push the English out of their land with the McNeills and McDonalds at their strongest in northern Ireland and the Spanish, Ireland's new allies, threatening England.
But, instead civil war torn Ireland apart and the English set up colonies in Ireland by brutally killing and displacing the Irish natives, leading to all sorts of further misery down through the centuries.
There was enough misery though

in these times to make me realize that thest century sounds pretty good compared to the end of thes.
Grace O'Malley was an interesting character good to see how the Irish system of that time allowed women more rights and freedom.
Elizabeth is in the last years of her reign in this story and although characters sometimes doubt her she proves to still be a scheming, brilliant tyrant.
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