For her contributions to the entertainment industry, she was given the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. She was honored with the Maureen O'Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival in 2011, the award is offered to women who have excelled in their chosen field in film. She was also nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards (winning one) and won a Saturn Award. In 2020, she was listed at #23 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.[3]
Early life and education
Flanagan was born and raised in Dublin, the daughter of Rosanna (née McGuirk) and Terence Niall Flanagan.[4] Her father was an Irish Army officer and Communist who had fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War against Franco'sNationalists.[5] She was educated at Scoil Mhuire on Marlborough Street, the current headquarters of the Department of Education.[6] Although her parents could not speak Irish, they wanted Fionnula and her four siblings to learn the Irish language; thus she grew up speaking both English and Irish fluently.[7]
Flanagan made her acting debut as the lead role of Máire in Máiréad Ní Ghráda's Irish-language play An Triail at the Damer Theatre in 1964. She continued the role in the radio version and rose to national prominence in the Teilifís Éireann television adaptation, for which she won the 1965 Jacob's Award for her "outstanding performance".[6][8] With her portrayal of Gerty McDowell in the film version of Ulysses (1967), Flanagan established herself as one of the foremost interpreters of James Joyce. She made her Broadway debut in Brian Friel's Lovers (1968), then appeared in The Incomparable Max (1971) and such Joycean theatrical projects as Ulysses in Nighttown (as Molly Bloom) and James Joyce's Women (1977; toured through 1979), a one-woman show written by Flanagan and directed for the stage by Burgess Meredith. It was subsequently filmed in 1983, with Flanagan both producing and playing all six main female roles (Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle, as well as fictional characters Molly Bloom, Gerty McDowell, etc.). In 2018 she returned to Broadway in Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman, directed by Sam Mendes.[9][10]
Flanagan and her late husband Garrett O'Connor, an Irish nationalist from Dublin,[14] were known to host parties at their Hollywood Hills home for people in the Irish community. In July 2009, she joined Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams for a series of lectures across the US supporting Irish unity. In October 2011, she announced her support for Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness in his unsuccessful bid in Ireland's 2011 presidential election.[15]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
