Sheila NaGeira, Sheila Mageila, Sheila Na Geira Pike, or Princess Sheila is a legendary 17th-century Irish noblewoman regarded in
Carbonear
Carbonear is a town on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It overlooks the west side of Conception Bay and had a history long tied to fishing and shipbuilding. Since the late 20th century, its economy has changed to empha ...
,
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...
as an ancestor of the locally prominent Pike family.
Legend

The family legend first appeared in print in a 1934 article on
Harbour Grace
Harbour Grace is a town in Conception Bay on the Avalon Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. With roots dating back to the 16th century, it is one of the oldest towns in North America.
It is located about northwest of ...
by William A. Munn.
[Hiscock 2002 p.198; ] It states that Sheila lived in the early 17th century and was from the
recently dispossessed Gaelic nobility in
Connacht
Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uà Fiachrach, Uà Briúin, Uà Maine, C ...
.
Catholic education
being illegal in Ireland, she was sent to France to a
convent school where her aunt was
abbess
An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa'') is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey.
Description
In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican abbeys, the mod ...
.
On the voyage there or back her ship was captured, first by a
Dutch warship, and then by an English
privateer
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
captained by
Peter Easton
Peter Easton ( – 1620 or after) was an English privateer and later pirate in the early 17th century. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life. By 1602, Easton had become a highly successful privateer, commissioned to protect En ...
on its way to Newfoundland.
En route Easton's lieutenant Gilbert Pike and Sheila fell in love; they landed at Harbour Grace, were married by the ship's
chaplain
A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...
, and settled first in Mosquito (now
Bristol's Hope
Bristol’s Hope is an unorganized subdivision on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is in Division 1 and contains the unincorporated community of Bristol's Hope.
Bristol's Hope
Bristol's Hope is the modern name of a ...
) and later in Carbonear.
Munn's 1934 version states that Sheila and Gilbert's firstborn was "the
first white child
The birth of the first white child is a concept that marks the establishment of a European colony in the New World, especially in the historiography of the United States.
Americas
Snorri Thorfinnsson is the first person of European descent bel ...
in Newfoundland",
predating
Nicholas Guy
Nicholas Guy (fl. 1612 – 1631) was one of the first settlers at the London and Bristol Company's Cuper's Cove, colony in Newfoundland, and was the father of the first English child born in Newfoundland and subsequently all of the country ...
's son born in 1613 at
Cupids
Cupids is a town of 699 people (per the 2021 Census) on Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It has also been known as Coopers, Copers Cove, Cuper's Cove, and Cuperts. It is the oldest continuously settled official British colo ...
.
Other versions reduce the scope to first white child in Carbonear or the west coast of Newfoundland, or extend it to all of Canada or
British North America
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, ...
(where
Virginia Dare
Virginia Dare (born August 18, 1587; date of death unknown) was the first English people, English child born in an Americas, American English overseas possessions, English colony.
What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery ...
was reputedly born in
Roanoke Colony
The Roanoke Colony ( ) refers to two attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The first colony was established at Roanoke Island in 1585 as a military outpost, and was evacuated in 1586. ...
in 1587).
In the 1940s, the story was broadcast several times by
Joey Smallwood
Joseph Roberts Smallwood (December 24, 1900 – December 17, 1991) was a Newfoundlander and Canadian politician. He was the main force who brought the Dominion of Newfoundland into Canadian Confederation in 1949, becoming the first premier of ...
's radio show, ''
The Barrelman'', and included in a
school reader, spreading it throughout Newfoundland. In 1958, P. J. Wakeham self-published ''Princess Sheila'', a novel based on the legend, which sold 5,000 copies by 1960 and was republished in 1987 as ''The Legend of Princess Sheila''.
[Hiscock 2002 p.205] Many post-1960 versions of the legend incorporate elements of Wakehams' novel, such as Sheila's death aged 105.
The Pikes became a large family in Newfoundland, and many with a Pike in their family tree claim descent from Sheila.
Linda Duncan, MP for
Edmonton—Strathcona, said in the
House of Commons of Canada
The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
in 2009:
: My family's roots, beginning around 1610 in Mosquito Point and Carbonear, were based on the shipping industry. My ancestor, Gilbert Pike, was a buccaneer. ... The most famous person in Newfoundland, Sheila NaGeira, is my ancestor.
Name
The given name ''
Sheila'' is an
anglicised
Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...
spelling of the Irish name (
old spelling ), itself originally a Gaelicisation of ''
Celia'' or ''
Cecilia
Cecilia is a personal name originating in the name of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music.
History
The name has been popularly used in Europe (particularly the United Kingdom and Italy, where in 2018 it was the 43rd most popular name for g ...
'' which was later often equated with ''
Julia
Julia may refer to:
People
*Julia (given name), including a list of people with the name
*Julia (surname), including a list of people with the name
*Julia gens, a patrician family of Ancient Rome
*Julia (clairvoyant) (fl. 1689), lady's maid of Qu ...
''. Sheila's second name is spelled ''Nagira'' in Munn's account. A baby girl in Carbonear was given the middle name ''Mageila'' in 1917 in honour of Sheila. All combinations of ''M'' or ''N'' with ''l'' or ''r'' are attested, while the middle vowel may be written ''i'', ''e'', ''a'', ''ee'', ''ei'', or ''ie''; together with the following ''r'' it may be pronounced , , , or (respectively like ''ERRor'', ''squARE'', ''nEAR'', or ''stARt''). Two-word forms like "NaGeira" and "na Geira" are found.
In
aisling
The , , approximately ), or vision poem, is a mythopoeic poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries in Irish language poetry. The word may have a number of variations in pronunciation, but the ''is'' of the first s ...
poems, was a common name for Ireland
personified
Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, countries, and continents; elements of ...
as a woman in bondage awaiting a
Jacobite rising. Eponymous examples are one written by
Munster
Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
poet
Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin
Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin (c. 1715 – 1795), known in English as Timothy O'Sullivan, was a composer of mostly Christian poetry in the Irish language whose ''Pious Miscellany'' was reprinted over 40 times in the early 19th century.
Early l ...
(1715–1795) and translated by
James Clarence Mangan
James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan (; 1 May 1803 – 20 June 1849), was an Irish poetry, Irish poet. He freely translated works from German, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Irish, with his translations of Goethe gaining special interest. St ...
in 1849;
another with the same metre translated by
John D'Alton in 1831;
and
Ethna Carbery
Ethna Carbery, born Anna Bella Johnston, (3 December 1864 – 2 April 1902) was an Ireland, Irish journalist, writer and poet. She is best known for the ballad ''Roddy McCorley'' and the ''Song of Ciabhán''; the latter was set to music by Ivor G ...
's
Gaelic revival
The Gaelic revival () was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaelic) and Irish Gaelic culture (including folklore, mythology, sports, music, arts, etc.). Irish had diminished as a sp ...
"Shiela nà Gara".
Eugene O'Curry
Eugene O'Curry (, 20 November 179430 July 1862) was an Irish philologist and antiquary.
Life
He was born at Doonaha, near Carrigaholt, County Clare, the son of Eoghan Ó ComhraÃ, a farmer, and his wife Cáit. Eoghan had spent some time as a ...
used the same personification in 1829 with reference to
Catholic Emancipation.
"Sheela na Guira", "Celia O'Gara", "Shillinaguira", and many other spellings, is a well-known
Irish jig setting for the Ó Súilleabháin and D'Alton poems, attested from 1745.
"Ni Ghadharadh" (modern spelling ) is the
feminine form of
Ó Gadhra
Ó Gadhra or O'Gara is an Ireland, Irish surname which originated in the kingdom of Luighne Connacht. Variants include Garry (surname), Garry, Geary (surname), Geary, Gerry, and Guiry (disambiguation), Guiry.
Background
According to historian C. ...
(O'Gara), surname of the chiefs of
Luighne Connacht
Luighne Connacht was a territory located in north-central Connacht, on the borders of what is now County Mayo and County Sligo, Ireland. The Tuatha of Luighne was co-extensive with the modern day boundary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Achon ...
.
Another "Sheela-na-Guira", or "Gillian Dwyer", was an
O'Dwyer () from Cullahill near
Borrisoleigh
Borrisoleigh () is a small town in County Tipperary, Ireland. At the 2016 census, it had a population of 679. It is in the ecclesiastical parish of Borrisoleigh and Ileigh in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.
Location and ac ...
in Munster, who ended centuries of family resistance to the Norman
Burke
Burke (; ) is a Normans in Ireland, Norman-Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (''circa'' 1160–1206) had the surname'' de B ...
s by marrying Walter Burke. ''Na Guira'' has also been interpreted as
Maguire
The Maguire ( ) family is an Irish clans, Irish clan based in County Fermanagh. The name derives from the Goidelic languages, Gaelic , which is "son of Odhar" meaning 'Wikt:sallow, sallow' or 'pale-faced'.
According to legend, this relates to the ...
(, an
Ulster
Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
name). In
Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and a significant figure in the evolution of the novel i ...
's 1817 play ''The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock'', the English Miss Gallagher scolds Irish maid Biddy for combing her hair too roughly: "You ran it fairly into my brain, you did! you're the grossest! heavy handiest!—fit only to wait on Sheelah na Ghirah, or the like." Biddy is insulted, "though I don't rightly know who that Sheelah na Ghirah was, from Adam."
In 1978
Harold Horwood suggested that "Na-gaira" was not a surname but an Irish-language
epithet
An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...
meaning "the beautiful", and that Sheila's true surname was
O'Conor
The O'Conor dynasty (Middle Irish: ''Ó Conchobhair''; Modern ) are an Irish noble dynasty and formerly one of the most influential and distinguished royal dynasties in Ireland. The O'Conor family held the throne of the Kingdom of Connacht up ...
, that of the Gaelic
kings of Connacht
The Kings of Connacht were rulers of the ''cóiced'' (variously translated as portion, fifth, province) of Connacht, which lies west of the River Shannon, Ireland. However, the name only became applied to it in the early medieval era, being name ...
. Hiscock suggests Horwood's "Na-gaira" is a misreading of "my darling". A related elaboration of the legend is that Sheila's true name and lineage were kept secret in Newfoundland to avoid persecution.
Historicity
Scholars are sceptical of the story. Elements are common to folk traditions elsewhere in North America. From the 1960s, older locals recounted to folklorists versions heard in their youth in the early twentieth century; there is no evidence of earlier currency. An 1892 letter on "Sheela-na-Guira" in an Irish journal describes her as "daughter of the head of the Connaught O'Garas, and a celebrated beauty", without reference to Newfoundland or Pike.
The first Pike recorded in Newfoundland is Thomas Pike at Carbonear in 1681. Ron Howell, chairman of the Carbonear Heritage Society, has written,
"This lore of Sheila and Gilbert has no basis in recorded fact. ... It would give me great pleasure to know that someone discovered a credible, recorded, 17th or 18th century reference to either Sheila or Gilbert. I would suggest that anyone promoting the Sheila story note that it is folklore and not recorded history."
The putative grave of Sheila and Gilbert is on a site owned by the Pike family and descendants until acquired in the 1980s by the
Royal Canadian Legion
The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian veterans' organization founded in 1925. Members include people who served in the military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial or municipal police, Royal Canadian Air, Army and Sea Cade ...
. In 1982 the
Canadian Conservation Institute gave the faded inscription on the extant gravestone as follows:
:Here lieth the body of John Pike, Sen. who departed this life 14 July 1753, aged 63. Also Julian his wife, died 14 June 174
Aged 69.
Commentaries
Philip Hiscock suggests that Smallwood valued the story as a
foundation myth
An origin myth is a type of myth that explains the beginnings of a natural or social aspect of the world. Creation myths are a type of origin myth narrating the formation of the universe. However, numerous cultures have stories that take place af ...
and its Catholic–Protestant marriage as "a metaphor for an unriven Newfoundland". Johanne Trew comments, "The gendering of the narrative is obvious: since the female Irish line is subsumed into the male English line, it is the English name/identity which remains visible."
Culture
Princess Sheila appears, crowned, on the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
of the town of Carbonear. The local theatre is the "Princess Sheila NaGeira Theatre". A tourist information notice is at the site her putative grave.
[Hiscock 2002 p.217] Besides Wakeham's novel, works based on the story include the 1955 poem "The Ballad of Sheila Na Geira" by L. E. F. English;
the musicals ''Sheila Na Geira: A Legend of Love and Larceny'' (1997) by Chuck Herriott,
and ''The Princess & the Pirate'' (1998) by Gordon Carruth;
and the children's book ''A Newfoundland Adventure'' by Dawn Baker.
The heroine of
Margaret Duley's 1941 novel ''Highway to Valour'' is named "Sheila Mageila Michelet", while "Sheila nGira" in
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...
's ''Gaff Topsails'' (1996) draws deeper on the legend.
[; ; ]
References
Sources
*
*
Citations
{{reflist
People from Carbonear
Canadian folklore
Irish folklore
Irish princesses
Fictional princesses
Irish-Canadian culture in Newfoundland and Labrador