pirate or Barbary corsair named Alonzo Bosco built a stronghold on Port Island, where the Cromwellian fort stands today. According to the tales he raided the Irish coast and shipping in the area. "Don" Bosco was supposed to have been an ally of Gráinne O'Malley, chieftain of the O'Malley clan and 'Ireland's pirate queen'. One story had them stretching a defensive iron chain across Inishbofin's harbour entrance to make it impassable to enemy ships. Across the harbour entrance from Port Island sits 'Dún Gráinne', the fort where Gráinne O'Malley supposedly lived. Eventually, Elizabethean forces took the island. In 1609, both Inishbofin and Inishark were the property of the Earl (or Marquis) of Clanricard (alternatively spelled Clanricarde or Clanrickard). The Marquis was of the de Burgo (Burke) family. In the years of war following the Irish rebellion of 1641, the island was an important staging posts for arms deliveries to the Irish Catholic rebels and their allies, the Royalists, from the Duke of Lorraine. The Royalists were supporters of King Charles I of England in the English Civil War against the Parliamentarians. In August 1649, the Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell had landed in Ireland and over the next few years conquered it. In early 1653, Cromwellian warships threatened to bombard the island and Inishbofin surrendered on 14 February to Sir John Reynolds. It was thus one of the last Royalist strongholds to fall to Cromwell's army. According to some accounts, after Galway had fallen in 1652, Rory O'Moore, one of the initiators of the 1641 rebellion fled to Inishbofin, where he lived in a cave. After taking the island, the Parliamentary forces turned Inishbofin into a prison for Catholic priests arrested elsewhere in Ireland. Most of the star fort commanding the harbour dates from this period. It is known today as "Cromwell's Barracks" and was used, aside from its role as a prison, to protect the harbour against pirates and Dutch raiders (with whom the Protectorate was at war). At the time, a considerable fishery and whaling activity was based on the island. In 1690, the fort was garrisoned during the Williamite War in Ireland by Jacobites, supporters of King James II of England. Commanded by one Colonel O'Riordan, they surrendered to King William's forces soon after the fall of Galway in 1691. In 1779, a British ship carrying officers and new recruits of the 84th Regiment of Foot and