TOM HAYES, who has died aged 82, was a documentary and feature film-maker and tireless advocate of an indigenous Irish film industry. He served on the Irish film industry committee chaired by John Huston in the 1960s and, a decade later, was a founder member of the film industry section of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (now Siptu), established to encourage the use of domestic crews on Irish productions.
He made his name as the producer (with Jim O'Connor) of Cradle of Genius(1959), which was nominated for an Oscar. The documentary about the Abbey Theatre, directed by Paul Rotha, was mainly filmed in the burnt-out shell of the old Abbey.
Many Abbey actors, such as Willie Fay, Ria Mooney and Harry Brogan, appeared in the film, which featured a reunion between Barry Fitzgerald and Sean O'Casey (who stole the show, according to Quidnunc in this newspaper).
The US television presenter Ed Sullivan planned to broadcast the sequence, centred on this encounter on St Patrick's Day in 1960. However, the item was dropped following protests by Irish-American organisations. The objectors claimed that O'Casey, living in self-imposed exile in England and a contributor to the communist Daily Worker, was not a "proper person to represent Ireland on St Patrick's Day".
Nevertheless, the film was well received in Ireland and the US. Irish distribution was handled by the Rank Organisation after Hayes tracked down Lord Rank to a coursing meeting in Clonmel and convinced him of the film's merits.
This was typical of his ingenuity. His fellow film-maker Colm Ó Laoghaire once remarked that "if a film required a yacht in the Bog of Allen, such was Tom's engaging personality that he could turn one up".
Born in 1926 in Oola, Co Limerick, he was the 10th of 11 children of Morgan Hayes and Kathleen Kennedy. He was educated at Tipperary CBS and by the Cistercians at Mount St Joseph, Roscrea.
He attended Clonliffe College before completing an arts degree at UCD, graduating in 1947.
He decided to try his hand at acting and joined a fit-up company, the Jimmy Stewart Robinson Group, touring Ireland for two years. Moving to London, he acted with Joan Littlewood at the Theatre Royal in Stratford East, supplementing his income by teaching English at a ballet school.
In Paris he appeared with Cyril Cusack and Siobhán McKenna in The Playboy of the Western Worldat the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, while living at the Shakespeare and Co Bookshop. After a brief stint as a teacher at a Swiss finishing school for boys, he returned to London, where he teamed up with Jim O'Connor to "put Irish film on the map".
Back in Ireland he worked as a taxi-driver to finance his film-making, and often told the story that whenever he picked up a fare from his other, more glamorous life, he greeted the passenger's embarrassment with the line, "And don't forget the tip."
He met Anna O'Brien in 1961, and did the HDip in 1962. He and Anna took off to Nsukka, Nigeria, where he taught English, mathematics and choral singing. They stayed there for three years, during which time they had two children.
He resumed his film career with O'Donoghue's Opera, Ireland's first film musical. Inspired by The Beggar's Opera, it was based on the Dublin ballad The Night that Larry was Stretched.
Starring Ronnie Drew and shot in 1965, it ran into post-production financial difficulties and was not finally premiered until 1998.
Following a stint as a locations manager he graduated to film production and co-produced Tristan and Iseult(1979), starring Richard Burton, Kate Mulgrew, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Niall Tóibín. He was executive producer of Anne Devlin(1984), directed by Pat Murphy and starring Bríd Brennan.
His documentaries include Progress Reported(1961) for Bord na Móna, and Bodhrán(1974), commissioned by Roinn na Gaeltachta. He also directed Ceol, about Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, for RTÉ.
A true bohemian, film-making was a natural home for him, given his background in acting. His other interests were his family, the theatre, literature and the St Vincent de Paul Society in Shankill, Co Dublin, where he lived.
He and his wife Anna had a wide circle of friends. Known for his good nature, courage and optimism, he had a fine singing voice and would burst into song at the drop of a hat once the company was right.
Looking back in 2000, he said: "It was all very exciting. I feel that I and many of my friends carried the torch and kept the flame alive. It is great to see it all maturing because from where I come what is being achieved in the industry these days is astounding."
His wife Anna, their daughters Trudy and Katy, and their sons Shane, Tadhg and Paddy survive him.
• Tom Hayes: born May 13th, 1926; died November 23rd, 2008