Snippets from – ‘IRISH PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS’ – which was published in November 2007.

Names like Morgan, Kidd, Drake, Teach(Blackbeard), Gow, Anstis and Avery immediately come to mind when pirates are mentioned. Very little is documented or known about the Irish pirates or privateers who roamed the Seven Seas as captains or crews aboard their ships of plunder. Having watched most of the English and American documentaries on pirates I can’t remember one Irish person being mentioned except for Anne Bonney.

In fact, Irish pirates and privateers were to be found everywhere scouring the oceans for trading vessels which they could capture and plunder. The main areas of operation were, Brazil to Newfoundland, the Azores, Madeira, the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the coasts of England and Ireland. The harbours and creeks of the south-west of Cork became the main base or den of operation for pirate activity from the 1580’s. Other locations were along the coast of Morocco, the coast of Cornwall, the Orkney Islands and the port of St. Malo in France on this side of the Atlantic. Many Irish joined the English and Dutch pirate and privateers’ ships calling into the Irish ports. Some of the vessels had a full Irish compliment. Others operating off the Irish coast recruited fishermen during the summer months when fishing was poor while others joined those ships heading for the east coast of America and the Caribbean Sea.

During my research I found references to two important related events, namely, the embarkation of 24 Irish, which included a number of families, at Crookhaven in 1594 destined for Venezuela where they set up a colony at Sinamaica. Another group of families numbering some 27 people set off also from Crookhaven in 1596 on a vessel destined for Brazil. Having settled in Caviana, on the mouth of the Amazon, they set up a trading colony. This colony still existed in 1620 as a dispute regarding trading rights arose in Flushing, Holland. It seems that a Captain Roger North had the rights of trading with this colony and this was disputed by a William Gaynor, an Irishman, who owned and lived on a plantation on that island. Some Irish, including a Mr. Daly returned some years later to Plymouth on a trading vessel.

I faced research into this subject with trepidation, worrying if I could be able to find sufficient information. However, as the weeks and months pass, I’m been fortunate enough to locate many sources which have revealed the importance of the Irish pirates and privateers in world history. Those who are interested in the subject will have to wait for the publication in November, ’07.