Connie Kelleher - The Alliance of Pirates: Ireland and Atlantic piracy in the early seventeenth century

THE ALLIANCE OF

Pirates

Ireland and Atlantic piracy in the
early seventeenth century

First published in 2020
by Cork University Press
Boole Library
University College
Cork Cork T12 ND89
Ireland

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019955525

Distribution in the USA Longleaf Services, Chapel Hill,

NC, USA.

Copyright:

text: Connie Kelleher 2020
images and illustrations: accredited institutions

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying in Ireland issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 25 Denzille Lane, Dublin 2.

The right of the author has been asserted by her in accordance with Copyright and Related Rights Acts 2000 to 2007.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-78205-365-1

Printed by Gutenberg in Malta

Typeset by Alison Burns at Studio 10 Design, Cork

Cover image credits

FRONT COVER AND SPINE: The 1612 chart of southwest Munster and the area of Roaringwater Bay drafted by English cartographer John Hunt. Commissioned by Dutch hydrographer Hessel Gerritszoon on behalf of the States-General, the chart is one of four found within a leeskaart written to inform on the harbours of Ireland in an effort to rid them of pirates.

SUB GTTINGEN, 4 H BRIT P III, 6 RARA, UNIVERSITTSBIBLIOTHEK, GTTINGEN, GERMANY

FLAPS: The province of Munster, Ireland, dated c. 1595, artist unknown. The chart shows Munster with lands targeted for resettlement under the plantation following the failed Irish rebellion and fall of the Gaelic order.

E9078, P/49(27), NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH, LONDON

To Rob, for everything.

In memory of Lee Snodgrass
a true pirate queen

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I first went to Baltimore in the mid-1990s to study the ODriscoll lordship. Very quickly, however, I encountered pirates. While the ODriscolls were at times accused of piracy, it became clear that there had been a separate and distinct piratical power in place in southwest Munster during the early part of the seventeenth century. The idea that pirates had walked the foreshore and sailed the waters of Roaringwater Bay intrigued me and I wondered if they had left any physical trace of their existence above or below the water. So began my fascination with the Alliance of Pirates.

This book has been a long time in the writing due in no small part to distractions from other work projects and the intervention of life in general. It could not have happened, however, without the support and assistance of certain institutions and individuals. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht funded my initial doctoral thesis and the support of senior staff in the National Monuments Service (NMS) was always forthcoming: former Acting Chief Archaeologist Dr Ann Lynch, who also graciously supplied information and images from her excavations on Sherkin Island; former Senior Archaeologist Con Manning, who sourced images for me, and the NMS Photographic Unit, in particular Con Brogan, John Lalor and Tony Roche, who supplied images of national monument sites for use in the book. My two colleagues in the Underwater Archaeology Unit (UAU), Senior Archaeologist Fionnbarr Moore and Karl Brady, have been constant advocates and allies.

In Trinity College Dublin, Prof. Jane Ohlmeyer encouraged, supervised and guided my research throughout my time there, while her colleagues Prof. Michel Siochr, Dr Paul Ferguson, Dr Kevin Costello and Dr David Brown graciously shared their wisdom and knowledge. In the Berkeley Library, Mark Brennan remains my faceless cohort, and his assistance has been invaluable thank you, Mark. Dr John Appleby of Liverpool Hope University was a fountain of knowledge and advice and his work over the years on the pirates of Munster and piracy in general continues to be a source of inspiration.

Dr Elaine Murphy of Plymouth University was and remains a constant co-conspirator in all things piraty. I would like to thank her for tirelessly transcribing many, many manuscripts for me and for her continued scholarly engagement. Other colleagues too deserve due acknowledgement: Prof. Audrey Horning of the College of William and Mary, Virginia and Queens University Belfast, who has supported me to the very end; Dr Colin Breen, University of Ulster, Coleraine; Dr James Lyttleton of AECOM, Bristol, and freelance senior archaeological consultant Eamon Cotter; Prof. Richard Pennell of Melbourne University whose expert understanding of the history of the Islamic world of North Africa was fundamental, along with his supplying of source information and images; Dr Wendy Duivenbord of Flinders University, Australia, who helped with details on Dutch ship typology; Dr David Heffernan of Queens University Belfast, who freely shared information on his and Dr David Edwards work in University College Cork on the Richard Boyle Colonial Landscapes Project.

I would like to thank the following institutions and their staff for providing access to their collections and granting permission to reproduce material from their holdings: Trinity College Dublin; University College Cork; Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; London Metropolitan Archives and City of London Corporation; Fr Tim Hanley and Garlickhythe Church and Cemetery, London; The National Archives, London; Greenwich Maritime Museum (Royal Museums, Greenwich), London; Museum of London Archives; Sheffield City Library Archives; Birmingham University Archives; National Portrait Gallery, Scotland; The Huntingham Library, San Marino, California, USA; Georg-August-Universitt, Gttingen, Germany, particularly Dr Helmut Rohlfing and Brbel Mund, for their assistance over the years when accessing the Hessel Gerritszoon document and for granting permission to reproduce it. Aisling Collins Archaeological Services (ACAS), Dublin and Mizen Archaeology, Cork both provided access to their material and gave permission to publish images of artefacts from their excavations. RM Diving Services, Cork provided sponsorship towards the colour reproductions in the book, for which I am very grateful. Professional photographer and friend, Cathal Twomey, deserves due thanks for giving graciously of his time for certain imagery in the book.

Throughout the process of research and writing on pirates, I had the pleasure of engaging with many residents of west Cork, who were always willing to help with their time, local knowledge and locations of new sites. They all deserve due credit: Thomas and Jane Somerville of Drishane House, Castlehaven; Terri Kearney of Skibbereen Heritage Centre; Brian, Corrine and Jenny Marten, Ringaroige Island, Baltimore; Tom and Aidan Bushe of Bushes Bar, Baltimore; Bernie and Pat McCarthy of Dn na Sad Castle, Baltimore; Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger and her husband Prof. Anthony Neuberger, of Leamcon House, Schull; Diarmuid and Nora ODonovan of Leamcon; Niall Hyde of Leamcon Castle, Castlepoint, Schull. Special thanks are owing to Nigel Towes of Sherkin Island, Baltimore, in whose beautiful Heir Island lobster boat Hanora we sailed among the islands in Roaringwater and Baltimore Bays, where we re-traced the routes of the pirates.