O'Flanagan was an imaginative and innovative fundraiser who disliked simply asking for donations and preferred to use other more practical methods to raise funds. He returned to Ireland in 1905 and procured a trio of lace and craftworkers, Mary O'Flanagan Rose Egan and Kate Davoren, and set up a travelling industrial and cultural exhibition. The trio would give public demonstrations and show samples of various regional styles of Irish lace while O'Flanagan curated the exhibition and gave lectures and interviews. The group travelled across the United States from coast to coast and held exhibitions in fifty-one cities over ninety-six weeks.
