‘Swashbuckling and cheeky’: island festival celebrates Ireland’s ‘pirate queen’

Polina Shapkina as Grace O’Malley. ‘It’s about female power,’ the performer said. Photograph: Alison Laredo

The Atlantic foamed, the wind gusted and the pirate queen swung from the rigging. She was ruler again, at least in spirit, of this corner of the west of Ireland.

Five centuries after Grace O’Malley defied convention, and the English, by leading a renegade fleet, her descendants and admirers gathered on Achill Island this weekend to re-enact and celebrate her feats.