Forget the Broadway debacle - for a true celebration of the life and times of Mayo rebel queen Grace O'Malley look no further than Granuaile, writes Siobhán Long
As glass ceilings, instead of illuminating a way forward, often stymie women's progress through the complex maze of work these days, it's sobering to reflect on where we've come to, and what we've lost in our rush towards mammon or self-fulfilment (depending on your perspective, of course).
Even a cursory glance at our own history reveals how those who came a long time before us knew how to kick against the traces in real style - and with serious consequences. Granuaile, or Grace O'Malley (born 1530, died 1603), was a heroine with a difference; a warrior and politician whose negotiating skills would have put George Mitchell in the shade, she was conveniently written largely out of history, despite or perhaps because of the fact that she was also a woman who celebrated her own femininity, and harnessed it to her advantage.
The recent Broadway debacle of The Pirate Queennotwithstanding, there's much to be celebrated in the life of Mayo's galleon queen, Grace O'Malley. For starters, Anne Chambers, author of Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen, Grace O'Malley 1530-1603suggests that we have a lot to learn from O'Malley's sophisticated understanding of the political landscape of her time.
"I've come to realise just how liberated and empowered she really was - far more so than her 21st century sisters in this so-called age of gender equality," Chambers admits, "and perhaps what is most telling is the fact that Granuaile was successful within the male-oriented world and dangerous environment in which she operated, not by jettisoning her femininity or becoming merely 'one of the boys', but by maximising her female strengths, especially that 'sixth sense' which we are all supposed to possess, but so rarely bring into play. There is never any doubt throughout her long, notorious and action-packed life that Granuaile is anything but all woman - daughter, lover, wife, mother, divorcee, grandmother, great-grandmother, matriarch - or that she indulged in the pleasures her womanhood conferred through her marriages, motherhood and sexual fulfilment - surely the exemplification of a true feminist."
In 1985, composer Shaun Davey sought to capture Grace O'Malley's spirit in his portrayal of the original pirate queen in Granuaile. Twenty-two years on, we've a timely opportunity to revisit this feminist icon, when Granuaileis performed in the National Concert Hall on Friday, alongside The Brendan Voyage, with singer Rita Connolly and piper Liam Ó Floinn.
Just as Meryl Streep struggles to ferret out decent roles for herself, Rita Connolly makes no bones about the fact that access to an entire suite of original songs of the calibre of those in Granuaileis a rare opportunity, and one that she savours for its sweetness every time she revisits the material.
"It's only as the years have gone by that I've really appreciated the richness of this music, because for women, there's very little out there," she says. "To have a piece written based on someone like Granuaile was a gift because back in 1982, I was a fairly feisty young woman, and I had my own strong opinions."
It was a bold endeavour, Davey's decision to tackle the Granuaile story. Presuming to imagine how Grace O'Malley would have plotted and planned, schemed and negotiated the defence of her homeplace against the incursions of marauders (including an unprecedented meeting with Queen Elizabeth I), he conjured a world apart, where this woman, with, as Anne Chambers evocatively exclaims, "a catalogue of rebellion, piracy and other 'disloyal' activities as long as her arm, registered against her at the English Court", bearing the tags of "nurse to all rebellions for forty years", and "a director of thieves and murderers at sea", reigned supreme.
"I think Shaun is a wonderful lyricist," Connolly says, by way of explaining why Davey should have succeeded where he might so readily have failed, given the Himalayan spirit of Granuaile that he deigned to capture in music. "That's not just because he's my husband, but because he gets to the real heart of what he's trying to say in a song, without sentimentality. He has a great sense of not wanting to 'milk' something."
Rita Connolly makes no secret of the fact that she's had to get into training to tackle this song cycle. It may be ideologically provocative, but musically, Granuaile is every bit as challenging to this singer's vocal and respiratory capacity as it is to her imagination. Having invested so much of herself in this particular suite of music though, she's quick to acknowledge Granuaile's iconic status in her own life.
"I think I have a better understanding now of Granuaile's sense of outrage at her persecution," Connolly suggests, "and I can really identify with her entitlement to be what she wanted to be, as a woman and as a mother. Looking back, I'm stunned by the way she's affected my life. When I sang Granuaileoriginally, I was quite young, in my early 20s, but now I look at the way something can shape your life or shift the path you take. Had Shaun written something completely different, a romantic or sentimental story, it might have shaped my life very differently, but this made me go on a very strong path. It really gave me a sense of 'if Granuaile could do it, I can do it. I can lead my own life.' Of course it's only looking back that I realise that."
Connolly is unquestionably the voice of Granuaile. She's the possessor of a pair of vocal cords which resonate richly, whether she's navigating her way through Ripples In The Rockpoolsor tackling a traditional song such as Venezuela. That distinctive voice can only ever be part of the story though, she insists.
"I don't have a huge egotistical need to perform," she confesses. "I think of my voice as just another element in the orchestra. Performing it with Liam Ó Floinn, I was really honoured, because he has such a majesty about him, and it's lovely to be part of that and to feel that you might have something to give."
The Shaun Davey Spectacular: Granuaile and The Brendan Voyage is at the National Concert Hall with Rita Connolly, Liam Ó Floinn and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Gavin Maloney, on Fri
