Field Day founding director Hammond dies age 79

Published Friday 29 August 2008 at 11:05 by Michael Quinn

David Hammond, one of the founding directors of the acclaimed Irish theatre company Field Day, has died at the age of 79.

The Belfast-born singer, film-maker, broadcaster and educator was invited by Field Day’s creators, actor Stephen Rea and playwright Brian Friel, to join the company’s board of directors in 1980 alongside three other prominent Irish writers - Seamus Heaney, Seamus Deane and Tom Paulin. Field Day quickly established itself as both a benchmark of quality and the heartbeat of Irish theatre before broadening its activities to include political pamphleteering and publishing.

A teacher-turned-BBC Northern Ireland producer, Hammond was described by Heaney as “a great Ulsterman and a great Irishman - he was one of the transformers in Irish life, as an artist in his contribution as a singer and performer, but also in his contribution as a broadcaster and educator and mentor. He added to the quality of life”.

In 1986, he formed his own documentary production company, Flying Fox Films, earning praise from Jeremy Isaacs, the then head of Channel 4, as “a poet of film”.

Pat Loughrey, ex-BBC NI controller and now the broadcaster’s director of nations and regions, said Hammond “crossed every boundary with style and distinction. He taught us to be civilised at the darkest times. He was unique - a man of poetry, song, of film and of a thousand stories. We’ll not see his like again.”

Hammond died on August 25 after a long illness and was buried on August 28. Among mourners at his funeral in Belfast was Irish President, Mary McAleese.