IN THE unlikely and exotic surroundings of Jamaica, in the West Indies, another chapter in the intriguing saga of Granuaile was recently unfolded.

The invitation I received to address the Jamaican Historical Society on the subject of Mayo's pirate queen seemed somehow natural in a country" whose history also had experienced the impact of a later generation of women pirates, notably the Irish born Ann Bonny and her companion, Mary Read. But it soon became apparent that Granuaile had bequeathed a far deeper and more important legacy to the history of Jamaica, through her remarkable seventh great grandson, Howe Peter Browne, second Marquess of Sligo.

The motto on Jamaica's coat of arms, "Out of Many One People" aptly reflects its many sided history. Jamaica was discovered or "found", as historical revisionists now insist, by Columbus in 1494. In the following years, by slavery and disease, the Spanish oversaw the annihilation of the native Arawak Indians who had completely disappeared by the middle of the 16th century.

Rivalries among the European powers spread to the West Indies which from the mid 16th to the end of the 18th centuries were the scene of international and commercial competition. In 1655, at the instigation of Oliver Cromwell, English forces were despatched to challenge the Spanish power and trade monopoly in the West Indies and Jamaica was officially ceded to the British Crown in 1670. It was to remain a British colony until its independence in 1962 and is still a member of the Commonwealth.

Throughout the period of Spanish and English domination, the stain on Jamaica's history undoubtedly was slavery. First introduced by the Spanish and continued by the English, the importation of black Africans, mainly from West Africa, continued unabated for 200 years. Captured in Africa, they were brought in the infamous slave ships to be sold in the West Indies where they worked, usually in great hardship and degradation.

Slavery was regarded by most civilised nations of the period as a legitimate business activity. Slaves were the mainstay of the sugar cane industry and made fortunes for their masters.

Africans were not the only people who were sent to Jamaica in bondage. From as early as the mid 1600s, convicts, political prisoners and indentured servants from Ireland and from Scotland worked alongside the African slaves. Today, Spanish, African, English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish blood mingle in a race of many cultures.

Ireland has played a significant role in the history of Jamaica. From the 16th century many names, particularly from the west of Ireland, have featured large in the life of Jamaica and the West Indies generally. The merchant tribesmen of Galway such as Lynch, Bodkin, Blake, Browne, Kirwan and Skerret were active in trade and shipping there as early as the mid 1600s.

Galway and Mayo names - such as Kelly, Daly, Browne, Concannon and Bourke feature prominently as plantation owners and overseers and in the legal and legislative arena. A Mayoman, noted astronomer, mathematician and botanist, Dr Patrick Browne, from Crossboyne, achieved fame in 1755 for his scholarly publication, The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica But perhaps the greatest contribution made by an Irishman in the evolution of Jamaica was by the seventh great grandson of Granuaile, Howe Peter Browne, the Second Marquess of Sligo from Westport.

HOWE PETER was appointed Governor General of Jamaica in 1834. The Browne family had long established connections with the island.

Through the marriage in 1752 of Howe Peter's grandfather to Elizabeth Kelly, daughter and heiress of Denis Kelly, Lisduff, Co Galway, Attorney General of Jamaica, the family inherited two sugar plantations on the island. Howe Peter's appointment was at one of the most critical periods in the history of Jamaica. His task was to carry out the proposed Emancipation Act and to oversee the Apprenticeship System, a period prior to full emancipation for the slaves. From the start he was thwarted by the plantation proprietors and overseers, the Jamaican House of Assembly and by elements in the British establishment but he persevered.

The treatment meted out to the black apprentices appalled him. "The cruelties," he wrote "are past all idea." The whipping of females, he protested to the Assembly, was repugnant to humanity.

Howe Peter felt that educational opportunities should go hand in hand with emancipation if the slaves were to make the most of their freedom. Together with the Baptist missionary, Rev James Phillippo, he gave his full support, private and public, to the establishment of a school system.

By the end of his governorship, Howe Peter had won the respect and admiration of all who supported the emancipation effort. In token of his efforts to effect their emancipation, the Jamaican slaves collected a sum of 1,000 for a magnificent candelabrum which they presented to the governor. The inscription on it stated that it was presented "by the Negroes of Jamaica in testimony of the grateful remembrance they entertain for his unremitting efforts to alleviate their suffering and to redress their wrongs during his just and enlightened administration of the government of the island".

Last month, Jeremy Altamont Browne, 11th Marquess of Sligo, was invited to visit Jamaica and attend a memorial service at the town of Sligoville, the first, free, slave village to be established in the world and named after his great great grandfather, Howe Peter.

During their stay in Jamaica, Lord and Lady Sligo and their party were entertained by the notable Jamaican entrepreneur and "son of Jamaica", the Hon Maurice Facey, OJ, and his wife, Valerie, and by Government, tourism, business and cultural interests and they visited the many Irish Jamaican historical locations on the island.

In his address to the people, of Sligoville, Lord Sligo commented on the pride with which his family had always viewed the contribution made to the struggle for emancipation in Jamaica by their ancestor, Howe Peter.

"Some things in life are worth fighting and working for and above everything else," Lord Sligo said, "freedom is perhaps the most important of all. Freedom to work if you want to, or not if you want to, freedom to love your country or to criticise your country if you want to."

We made many friends during our stay in Jamaica and unearthed many Irish connections there. For me it was most interesting to seek and find the connections with Granuaile through her Browne and Bourke relations in such places as Sligoville, St Catherine's Church in Guanaboa Vale where the relations of her descendant, the last Viscount Mayo of Castlebourke, lie buried and to see her descendants' names on ancient maps of the country.

Looking out on the blue Caribbean from Charles Fort in the old pirate city of Port Royal, I felt sure that our Irish pirate queen would have felt quite at home in the swashbuckling, privateering days of Jamaica long ago.