Ted (Edward) Hickey was much respected as keeper of art for more than 20 years in the Ulster Museum but equally regarded as inspirer, encourager and facilitator of artistic enterprise, artists and writers.
As the poet Michael Longley recalled in his funeral eulogy, it was Ted Hickey who first brought De Danann north of the Border, enticed the artist Joseph Beuys to Belfast, recommended Anne Devlin's diaries as material to film-maker Pat Murphy, and suggested the now-established readings in the museum by internationally acclaimed writers.
He became one of Belfast's most distinctive characters, said Longley, a "rumpled man about town, a tousled dandy, every inch an aesthete, adored man in a house full of women". His coffin was carried into St Brigid's Church in Derryvolgie by his first and second wives, Elizabeth and Helen, and his four daughters.
He was born in Wicklow in 1940, educated in the Dublin Institute of Science and Technology, the London School of Film Technique and UCD, where he graduated in English and art history.
He joined the Ulster Museum as research assistant in 1970 but within two years had won the job of keeper of art. Until his early retirement in 1993 he made astute purchases and ensured that key Northern artists were well represented. In the 1970s he discovered notebooks by the landscape painter Paul Henry which were published with his preface under the title Further Reminiscences.
He also ran a traditional music club in Queen's University senior common room for many years and served two terms on the board of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. A fine singer, he produced a solo album of Wicklow ballads: Beneath the Green Tree. A radio documentary, James Joyce and Folksong, has been much used as a teaching-aid in Anglo-Irish literature courses.
He was married to Helen Lanigan, archaeologist and curator of the Enniskillen Museum, then to Elizabeth McCrumm, keeper of applied art in the Ulster Museum.
In his last five years as keeper of art, Ted Hickey was also appointed a member of the Arts Council. Director Mary Cloake paid tribute to his "substantial contribution in many ways to the arts in Ireland" and as a keen observer and writer who was enthusiastic and generous with advice to others.
Retirement swiftly taught him how under-used his store of experience might be, so he worked for several years on a part-time basis for the Northern Ireland Arts Council as visual arts director. Michael Longley, then a colleague, remembered that the atmosphere in meetings "became more good-natured and kind-hearted as soon as he turned up".
He said of himself that "making things happen" was his particular gift: certainly it was one of his gifts, said Longley. In their early days he had supported, among others, Felim Egan, Stephen McKenna, Rachel Brown, Poncho Monreal, Jack Crabtree, David Crone and Jim Allen. "For Ted there was a trinity of cares and attachments: his family and his friends and the arts."
He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, daughters Una, Ciara and Rosaleen, and Nora from his marriage to Helen Lanigan.
Edward (Ted) Hickey: born Wicklow 1940; died Belfast, September 5th, 2005