Mayo author returns to where it all began for Grace O'Malley talk
As part of the 2026 Dublin Festival of History, the Central Bank of Ireland is hosting a talk entitled ‘Grace O’Malley: The Woman Behind the Legend’ by Castlebar author Anne Chambers.
The talk takes place on Wednesday, October 7, in the River Suite at the bank’s headquarters on North Wall Quay, Dublin.
It was in the same institution, over 40 years ago, when, as a junior executive officer, Anne first set off on her mission to find the factual evidence relating to Grace O’Malley, whose life until then had been consigned to fiction and folklore.
As Anne recalls: “Grace O’Malley never appeared in the pages of my school history books, which made me curious to find out if she had even existed or was just another Irish myth.”
Encouraged by her boss at the Central Bank, Dr. T.K. Whitaker, Anne – then in her early 20s – embarked on what turned out to be a four-year-long search among contemporary manuscripts and state papers of the 16th century in both in Ireland and the UK. She finally unearthed the factual lifestory of Ireland’s iconic Pirate Queen – 'which turned out even more remarkable than the legend'.
Her biography has since broken Irish publishing records, being in constant print for 45 years. It has also been instrumental in some of her 10 further biographies, including on Grace O’Malley’s son, Lord Mayo, Westport’s Lord Sligo (the 19th century ‘Champion of the Slaves’) and Castlebar-born operatic diva, Margaret Burke Sheridan.
And the Central Bank was destined to have an additional impact on Anne’s writing career with her acclaimed biography T.K. Whitaker: Irishman of the 20th Century (1916-2017).
“It was if my journey in biography had come full circle,” said Anne.
Her recently published memoir – Living Lives: A Biographer’s Journey – records that life journey as well as highlighting the methodology involved in writing this branch of literature.
The talk on October 7 is free and open to the public by registering at recordsandarchives@centralbank.ie.