Fionnghuala Manon "Fionnula" Flanagan (born 10 December 1941) is an Irish stage, television, and film actress. For her contributions to the entertainment industry, she was given the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Flanagan is known for her roles in the films James Joyce's Women (1985) and The Others (2001), for the latter of which she won a Saturn Award. 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 two Tony Awards during her acting career. In 2020, she was listed at #23 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Early life and education Flanagan was born and raised in Dublin, the daughter of Rosanna (née McGuirk) and Terence Niall Flanagan. Her father was an Irish Army officer and Communist who had fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War against Franco's Nationalists. Although her parents were not Irish speakers, they wanted Fionnula and her four siblings to learn the Irish language; thus she grew up speaking English and Irish fluently. She was educated in Switzerland and England. She trained extensively at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and travelled throughout Europe before settling in Los Angeles in early 1968. Career 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". 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