Sheelagh Flanagan

Sheelagh Flanagan (25 December 1925 – 3 May 2018) was a Northern Irish actress, costume designer, artist's agent, gallery owner and peace activist.

Early life Sheelagh Mabel Garvan was born in Belfast on Christmas Day 1925, the daughter of a local shopkeeper. She 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. Her interest in the performing arts led her to join the Arts Theatre in Belfast. Following an encounter with the theatre director Mary O'Malley, Garvan joined the Lyric Players where she was to meet her future husband who designed sets. Garvan came from a Unionist family, but converted to Roman Catholicism upon her marriage.

Flanagan retired from acting in the early 1960s due to the demands of family life. Her interest in the performing arts did not wane and in 1973 she made a return to the theatre by designing costumes for Interplay, a company who brought educational theatre into schools and communities. In 1974, she was appointed office administrator for the community group Peace Point, founded by the Peace People in conjunction with the Corrymeela Community. Peace Point organised educational programmes aimed at breaking down sectarian barriers and uniting the many peace groups across Northern Ireland. Flanagan was a co-founder and trustee of the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust when they formed in 1979. Flanagan became a promoter of her husband's work, in addition to acting as an agent for other Ulster artists including F E McWilliam.

In the mid-1980s, Flanagan became the agent for the sculptor Deborah Brown whose animal sculpture's were exhibited for the first time at Flanagan's Shambles Gallery in 1989.

Flanagan sat on the board of the Irish National Ballet in 1982. She 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, Flanagan held a commemorative exhibition, A Poet's Pictures, for John Hewitt consisting of pictures collected by the late Hewitt and his wife. The accompanying catalogue contained tributes from artists and poets.

Death and legacy Sheelagh Flanagan died in Belfast on 3 May 2018.