Movies

'Say Nothing' Writer Developing Feature Film About Irish Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley

Lacy Baugher Milas

01 Apr 2025 — 2 min read

Many Americans have likely never heard of Grace O'Malley, but writer and director Kirsten Sheridan is working on changing that. The former Say Nothing scribe is developing a feature film about the exploits of one of the most interesting (and least well-known) female figures in history.

Gráinne Mhaol Ní Mháille, also known as Grace O’Malley or Granuaile, was an accomplished mariner and political tactician. She established herself as a powerful ruler along the west coast of Ireland in the sixteenth century, a tumultuous period in which Tudor England was steadily reconquering much of Ireland. Grace's exploits earned her the nickname of "Ireland's Pirate Queen," though the folklore surrounding her alleged deeds vastly outweighs the historical facts we know about her life.

Based on the book Grace O'Malley – The Biography of Ireland's Pirate Queen by renowned biographer Anne Chambers, the film is set to dramatize the meeting between two of the most famous women of their day: O'Malley and England's Queen Elizabeth I.

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