The Story of a Princess from Carbonear

Princess Sheila NaGeira is a legendary 17th-century Irish noblewoman. In Carbonear, she is regarded as an ancestor of the local Pike family.

The legend says that Sheila lived in the early 17th century and was from the recently dispossessed Gaelic nobility in Connacht. From Ireland, she was sent to France to a convent school. On the voyage there or back her ship was captured, first by a Dutch warship, and then by an English privateer captained by Peter Easton on its way to Newfoundland.

Easton's lieutenant Gilbert Pike and Sheila fell in love; they landed at Harbour Grace, were married by the ship's chaplain, and settled first in Mosquito (now Bristol's Hope) and later in Carbonear.

The Carbonear coat of arms and flag depicts Princess Sheila with a crown and the theatre is the "Princess Sheila NaGeira Theatre". There is a putative grave on Pike's Lane in Carbonear. There are also various literary works referencing Princess Sheila NaGeira.