12 Facts About Sheelagh Flanagan

Sheelagh Flanagan was a Northern Irish actress, costume designer, artist's agent, gallery owner and peace activist.

Sheelagh Flanagan left school at the age of fourteen and joined the civil service where she was later promoted to become private secretary to Northern Ireland's Attorney General.

Sheelagh Flanagan was a skilled dressmaker from a young age and once declined a dressmaking scholarship in London, but after her marriage she became involved in the production of sets and costumes at the Lyric Theatre.

Sheelagh Flanagan was influenced by the couples' austere living and their socialist outlook.

Sheelagh Flanagan retired from acting in the early 1960s due to the demands of family life.

Sheelagh Flanagan organised an exhibition to raise funds for victims of civil disturbances in Belfast in the autumn of 1969.

Sheelagh Flanagan was a co-founder and trustee of the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust when they formed in 1979.

Sheelagh Flanagan established the Shambles Gallery in Hillsborough, County Down, in 1971.

Sheelagh Flanagan became a promoter of her husband's work, in addition to acting as an agent for other Ulster artists including F E McWilliam.

Sheelagh Flanagan sat on the board of the Irish National Ballet in 1982.

Sheelagh Flanagan was close friends with many of Ulster's literary, dramatic and visual artists of the fifties and sixties, including John Hewitt, Seamus Heaney and Jimmy Ellis.

In 1987, Sheelagh Flanagan held a commemorative exhibition, A Poet's Pictures, for John Hewitt consisting of pictures collected by the late Hewitt and his wife.