Acclaimed Irish musical director and writer

For Bryan Flynn, self-described "writer, musician, broadcaster and professional entertainer", who has died of cancer at the age of 43, the words "entertainment" and "inspiration" meant "feeling good about yourself, about others and the world".

That neatly sums up the work ethic and philosophy of one of Ireland's most inspiring musical directors. Whether staging grand opera such as Mozart's Don Giovanni at Cork Opera House or directing a children's Christmas pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Waterford, he had the magic touch that every director craves.

In the course of a sparkling but all too brief career, he produced, directed and designed over 80 musical productions ranging from Sweeney Todd to Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Chicago, Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man, Sweet Charity, Anything Goes, Oliver and Grease.

True professional
The theatre mantra "the show must go on" applied to him in spades. Refusing to capitulate to his illness, he insisted on overseeing last month's record-breaking run of Grease at Cork Opera House.

Maintaining a quiet presence behind the scenes until the final curtain fell on the very last performance, he was a true professional right to the end.

Born into a musical family in Waterford, a city alive with theatre and music, as a boy he played an array of musical instruments and studied dancing from the age of five to 14, cutting his teeth as a child performer on the stage. Schooled at De La Salle college, he knew by the age of 15 that he wanted to be a director and went on to graduate in music at the Waterford Institute of Technology. No doubt on trips to London he visited the West End to see how the great musicals were staged.

With an early reputation as a director, composer and writer to be reckoned with, he burst on to the national stage with Pentimenti in 1998.

A powerful musical on the controversial issue of the Holocaust and the first of his three original works, it was co-produced by the Stage Fright and Red Kettle theatre companies and premiered at the Theatre Royal Waterford, playing to full houses.

As did his comedy on the GAA, the All Star Wars, packing them in at the Olympia in Dublin, the Cork Opera House and at the Theatre Royal in his home town.

Michael Collins musical
To celebrate Cork's 2005 reign as European Capital of Culture, the Opera House commissioned him to create an original musical drama. The result was the musical Michael Collins. His actor wife, Irene Warren, played Kitty Kiernan in the ground-breaking recreation of those troubled times, a drama also acclaimed in Cork, Waterford and Dublin.

In 2002, he devised and directed The Celebrity Gala Concert at the National Concert Hall in aid of Temple Street children's hospital and in 2009 was invited to stage the President's Gala to mark the reopening of a newly refurbished Cork Opera House by the then president Mary McAleese.

In 2010, he directed the Irish national tour of the RTÉ/ Robert C Kelly production of Fame: The Musical. Paying tribute to his significant contribution to Irish musical theatre, Cork Opera House last year staged Hey, Mr Director!, a gala concert in his honour.

In a personal tribute, actor Pat McElwain described him as “a superbly talented, creative and humble man with an eye for detail which was unsurpassed. Bryan set the bar for directors of musical theatre in this country”.

He is survived by his parents Theresa and John, partner Yvonne Cronin, son Ben, daughter Ruby, brother David, sisters Sinéad and Sharon and his former wife Irene Warren.