Robert Ballagh was born in Dublin in 1943, he studied architecture and worked as an engineering draughtsman, a musician and a postman before taking up painting in 1967. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1969, and at graphic exhibitions in Florence, Ljubljana and Tokyo. His paintings are held in collections including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Ulster Museum, the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, and the Albrecht Dürer House, Nuremberg. Major survery exhibitions of his work have taken place in Lund, Warsaw, Sofia and Dublin.

As a graphic designer he has produced over 70 stamps for An Post, the final series of Irish banknotes before the introduction of the euro, and numerous murals, posters, limited prints and book covers.

His notable work in the theatre includes set design for I'll Go On, Gate Theatre (1985); the Riverdance company; Samuel Beckett's Endgame, Gate Theatre (1991); Steven Berkoff's production of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, Gate Theatre, Dublin (1998) and the staging for the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in Croke Park, Dublin (2003).

"Because my working practise as a painter tends to be detailled, methodical and above all, slow, my pictures not only take a long time to complete but also end up being quite expensive. Sadly this means that few people can afford to buy them. As a result of this I have always felt a democratic impulse to produce works on paper, whether original drawings or limited edition prints in order to make my art available to a wider range of people".