Powerful Women of the West Coast

In pre-Christian times, Celtic civilisation once revered the Divine Feminine – best epitomised in Ireland’s namesake, Ériu. Today more commonly known as Éire, the Irish name for Ireland is named after this powerful female goddess. Her name became twined with Ireland’s when she represented the magical pantheon of gods and goddesses to negotiate the future of Ireland. This negotiation is said to have happened atop the Hill of Uisneach, where Éire was later buried.

Ériu’s influence is strong. Uisneach is meant to be the meeting point of the five ancient Irish provinces, with records showing that Ériu’s burial site has remained a powerful meeting point for thousands of years. In fact, many Irish leaders have delivered inspired speeches and hosted meetings at this powerful point of confluence.

Her existence reminds us that in Celtic civilisation, female goddesses were recognised and respected, with powerful women revered as leaders in bygone communities. Ériu’s legacy of leadership and the power of the feminine is still inspiring Irish culture and leadership to this day.

Read more about Ériu, the female goddess, here.

Learn more about visiting Ireland’s Ancient East on a self-drive journey through the region. 

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Affectionately known as Ireland’s Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley or Granuaile was a powerful and enigmatic leader from Clare Island, off the west coast of Ireland. Daughter of a pirate and born into the powerful O’Malley clan, she was a force to be reckoned with, even from a young age.

Though her father was originally hesitant to allow her onboard his ships, she lopped off her hair, dressed as a ship-boy, and stowed away on one of his ships. From then on, nothing could separate Grace from the sea. Demonstrating a strong will and good business acumen, she took over the family trade after her father’s death and ruled the seas from Clew Bay to Galway Bay for over three decades.

She famously met with the queen of England, Queen Elizabeth, who grudgingly recognised her as another strong woman, and gave in to her demands.

Learn more about Ireland’s Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley here.

Granuaile’s home base was on Clare Island, but the coasts and islands of Mayo and Galway were long under her dominion. Join our island hopping tour to meet the Pirate Queen and learn more about her legacy.

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We’re sneaking St Brigid onto this list of powerful women of the west. Technically, St Brigid is from Kildare, a small county in the eastern region of the country. One of the three patron saints of Ireland, she also has the distinction of lending her name to Ireland’s most recent bank holiday (and the only one named for a woman).

But St Brigid may or may not have been a real person. Or rather, the saint may be a Christianisation of a pagan princess also called Brigit. Sharing attributes such as wisdom, poetry, healing, protection, smithing and domesticated animals, the same feast day – February 1st – a connection to the start of spring, the same name and a similar time period, it’s impossible not to connect the two women. Christianisation of pagan elements was a common way to convert the populace gently and quietly to the new monotheistic religion.

Regardless of whether the saint and the princess were two individuals or one and the same, there’s no denying the mark that Brigid’s legacy of wisdom, healing, rejuvenation and spring has left on Irish pagan and Christain culture. Read more about Brigid here.

A well-known writer and storyteller from Dunquin on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland’s southwest, Peig Sayers moved to Great Blasket Island as a young bride. Though illiterate, she became an animated and elaborate storyteller and repository for folklore, history and island life. Her house was never without fanfare and the sound of stories shared. She played an important role in preserving oral storytelling and the Irish language, particularly the form known as seanchaí.

She later dictated her life’s story into a memoir. As required reading in schools for decades and known for its dense nature and the difficult Irish language, Peig Sayers doesn’t have the best reputation for many Irish readers. She is slowly returning to public presence with a section dedicated to her and other literary greats of the Blaskets at the Blasket Centre. (Want to know more about books and the Blaskets? Read more here).

Read more about the story of Peig Sayers here.

Visit the remnants of the Blasket island cottages and get a feel for the island she once called home while island hopping through Cork and Kerry. Learn more below.

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