Other Relationships
Ní Mháille was accused of promiscuity, and it was said that she may have had a son out of wedlock. Biographer Anne Chambers points out that despite hints at these facts in certain state documents, allegations such as these were frequently made against women who acted in a manner contrary to the social norms of the day.
The Chambers biography relates that the legendary reason for Ní Mháille's seizure of Doona Castle in Ballycroy was because the MacMahons, who owned the castle, killed her lover, Hugh de Lacy, a young boy who was easily fifteen years younger than her, the shipwrecked son of a Wexford merchant Ní Mháille had rescued.
Read more about this topic: Grace O'Malley