John Hewitt
Encyclopedia
John Harold Hewitt who was born in Belfast
, Ireland
, was the most significant Irish
poet
to emerge before the 1960s generation of poets that included Seamus Heaney
, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley
. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast
in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates the University of Ulster
and Queen's University Belfast.
From November 1930 to 1957, Hewitt held postions in the Belfast Museum & Art Gallery. His radical socialist ideals proved unacceptable to the Belfast Unionist establishment and he was passed over for promotion in 1953. Instead in 1957 he moved to Coventry
, a city still rebuilding following its devastation
during the Second world War. Hewitt was appointed Director of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum where he worked until retirement in 1972.
Hewitt had an active political life, describing himself as "a man of the left", and was involved in the British Labour Party, the Fabian Society
and the Belfast Peace League. He was attracted to the Ulster
dissenting tradition and was drawn to a concept of regional identity within the island of Ireland, describing his identity as Ulster, Irish, British and European. John Hewitt officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre (BURC) Offices on Mayday
1985.
His life and work are celebrated in two prominent ways - the annual John Hewitt International Summer School - and, less conventionally, a Belfast pub is named after him - the John Hewitt Bar and Restaurant, which is situated on the city's Donegall Street and which opened in 1999. The bar
was named after him as he officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre, which owns the establishment. It is a popular meeting place for local writers, musicians, journalists, students and artists. Both the Belfast Festival at Queen's
and the Belfast Film Festival
use the venue to stage events.
from 1919 to 1920 before moving to the Methodist College Belfast
, where he was a keen cricketer. In 1924, he started an English degree at the Queen's University of Belfast
, obtaining a BA
in 1930, which he followed by obtaining a teaching qualification from Stranmillis College, Belfast. During these years, his calling to radical and socialist causes deepened; he heard James Larkin
address a Labour rally, began to write for a range of Trades Union and Socialist publications, and co-founded a journal entitled Iskra. Hewitt also attended the Northern Ireland Labour Party
Annual Conference as a Belfast City delegate in 1929 and 1930. He resisted the advocacy of a workers’ republic in the party's constitution.
In 1930 Hewitt was appointed Art Assistant at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery
, where amongst other duties, he gave public lectures on art, at one of which he met Roberta "Ruby" Black, whom he was to marry in 1934. Roberta was also a convinced Socialist, and the couple became members of the Independent Labour Party
, the Belfast Peace League, the Left Book Club
and the British Civil Liberties Union
.
, William Morris
and W. B. Yeats, and for the most part the verse is either highly romantic
, or strongly socialist
, a theme which increased in prominence as the 1930s began. Morris is the key figure, combining both these strains, and allowing Hewitt to articulate the radical, dissenting
strain which he inherited from his Methodist forbearers, including his father.
As the 1920s moved into the 1930s, Hewitt's writing began to develop and mature. Firstly, his role models (including Vachel Lindsay
) became more modern; secondly, he discovered in Chinese poetry a voice which was "quiet and undemonstrative but clear and direct", and which answered a part of Hewitt's temperament which had been suppressed. Finally, and most importantly, he began his lifelong work of excavation and discovery of the poetry of Ulster, starting with Richard Rowley
, Joseph Campbell
and George William Russell
(AE). This research culminated, in part, with the publications of Fibres, Fabric and Cordage in 1948, Rhyming Weavers and other Country Poets of Antrim and Down (based on his MA thesis, Ulster Poets 1800-1870 of 1951) in 1974, and a book called The Rhyming Weavers in 1979. All of these publications and more, were based on his interest in the Ulster rhyming weaver poets
of the 19th century, such as Henry MacDonald Flecher, David Herbison, Alexander MacKenzie, James MacKowen, and James Orr
.
Hewitt himself felt that his juvenilia ended with the poem Ireland (1932), which he placed at the start of his Collected Poems (1968), and indeed it is more complex than most of his earlier work, and begins his lifelong preoccupation with bleak landscapes of bog and rock; with exile, and with the nature of belonging.
- until 1954; the Belfast Lyric Players performed a stage version in 1957, which they revived in 1986), which tells of a legendary massacre of Roman Catholics
by Cromwellian
troops in Islandmagee
, County Antrim, in 1642. John Hill, one of the soldiers who has been racked by guilt since he participated in the slaughter, returns many years later to beg forgiveness. This he receives from the ghost of one of his victims, a gesture which she wraps in a condemnation of his self-indulgence, luxuriating in his guilt rather than taking positive action to combat bigotry. Another theme which was to become a fixture in Hewitt's poetry also first appears in The Bloody Brae; that is, a bold assertion of the right of his people to live in Ulster, rooted in their hard work and commitment to it:
Hewitt is not claiming a right of Imperial possession here; rather, the right to live alongside the native population.
Also in the 1930s, Hewitt was involved in with a group of young artists and sculptors known as the 'Ulster Unit', and acted as their secretary.
from Queen's University Belfast, with a thesis on Ulster poets from 1800–1870, in 1951. In 1951 he had been appointed deputy director and keeper of art at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery but in 1957, Hewitt left to take up the position of Art Director at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
in Coventry
, a postion he held until 1972. While in Coventry
, Hewitt started work on his unpublished autobiography, A North Light. He subsequently returned to Belfast
on his retirement in 1972.
Other poems include:
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, was the most significant Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
to emerge before the 1960s generation of poets that included Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley
Michael Longley
Michael Longley, CBE is a Northern Irish poet from Belfast.-Life and career:Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus...
. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates the University of Ulster
University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
and Queen's University Belfast.
From November 1930 to 1957, Hewitt held postions in the Belfast Museum & Art Gallery. His radical socialist ideals proved unacceptable to the Belfast Unionist establishment and he was passed over for promotion in 1953. Instead in 1957 he moved to Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, a city still rebuilding following its devastation
Coventry Blitz
The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place in the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force...
during the Second world War. Hewitt was appointed Director of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum where he worked until retirement in 1972.
Hewitt had an active political life, describing himself as "a man of the left", and was involved in the British Labour Party, the Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
and the Belfast Peace League. He was attracted to the Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
dissenting tradition and was drawn to a concept of regional identity within the island of Ireland, describing his identity as Ulster, Irish, British and European. John Hewitt officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre (BURC) Offices on Mayday
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
1985.
His life and work are celebrated in two prominent ways - the annual John Hewitt International Summer School - and, less conventionally, a Belfast pub is named after him - the John Hewitt Bar and Restaurant, which is situated on the city's Donegall Street and which opened in 1999. The bar
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
was named after him as he officially opened the Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre, which owns the establishment. It is a popular meeting place for local writers, musicians, journalists, students and artists. Both the Belfast Festival at Queen's
Belfast Festival at Queen's
The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's is an annual arts festival held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The 49th Festival will take place from 14 to 31 October 2011.-History:...
and the Belfast Film Festival
Belfast Film Festival
Founded in 1995 by author Laurence McKeown, in its early stages of development the West Belfast Film Festival was part of Féile an Phobail. In its third and fourth year, it was autonomous and under the stewardship of Michele Devlin and Laurence McKeown, the Film Festival ran as a citywide event...
use the venue to stage events.
Early life
After attending Agnes Street National School, Hewitt attended the Royal Belfast Academical InstitutionRoyal Belfast Academical Institution
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution, is a Grammar School in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Locally referred to as Inst, the school educates boys from ages 11–18...
from 1919 to 1920 before moving to the Methodist College Belfast
Methodist College Belfast
Methodist College Belfast , styled locally as Methody, is a voluntary grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, and is a member of the Independent Schools Council...
, where he was a keen cricketer. In 1924, he started an English degree at the Queen's University of Belfast
Queen's University of Belfast
Queen's University Belfast is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The university's official title, per its charter, is the Queen's University of Belfast. It is often referred to simply as Queen's, or by the abbreviation QUB...
, obtaining a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1930, which he followed by obtaining a teaching qualification from Stranmillis College, Belfast. During these years, his calling to radical and socialist causes deepened; he heard James Larkin
James Larkin
James Larkin was an Irish trade union leader and socialist activist, born to Irish parents in Liverpool, England. He and his family later moved to a small cottage in Burren, southern County Down. Growing up in poverty, he received little formal education and began working in a variety of jobs...
address a Labour rally, began to write for a range of Trades Union and Socialist publications, and co-founded a journal entitled Iskra. Hewitt also attended the Northern Ireland Labour Party
Northern Ireland Labour Party
The Northern Ireland Labour Party was an Irish political party which operated from 1924 until 1987.In 1913 the British Labour Party resolved to give the recently formed Irish Labour Party exclusive organising rights in Ireland...
Annual Conference as a Belfast City delegate in 1929 and 1930. He resisted the advocacy of a workers’ republic in the party's constitution.
In 1930 Hewitt was appointed Art Assistant at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial...
, where amongst other duties, he gave public lectures on art, at one of which he met Roberta "Ruby" Black, whom he was to marry in 1934. Roberta was also a convinced Socialist, and the couple became members of the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
, the Belfast Peace League, the Left Book Club
Left Book Club
The Left Book Club, founded in 1936, was a key left-wing institution of the late 1930s and 1940s in the United Kingdom set up by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Strachey to revitalise and educate the British Left. The Club's aim was to "help in the struggle For world peace and against...
and the British Civil Liberties Union
Liberty (pressure group)
Liberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Its formal name is the National Council for Civil Liberties . Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights...
.
Early writing
Hewitt began experimenting with poetry while still a schoolboy at Methodist College in the 1920s. Typically thorough, his notebooks from these years are filled with hundreds of poems, in dozens of styles; Hewitt's main influences at this time included William BlakeWilliam Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
and W. B. Yeats, and for the most part the verse is either highly romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, or strongly socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, a theme which increased in prominence as the 1930s began. Morris is the key figure, combining both these strains, and allowing Hewitt to articulate the radical, dissenting
Dissenter
The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...
strain which he inherited from his Methodist forbearers, including his father.
As the 1920s moved into the 1930s, Hewitt's writing began to develop and mature. Firstly, his role models (including Vachel Lindsay
Vachel Lindsay
Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered the father of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted...
) became more modern; secondly, he discovered in Chinese poetry a voice which was "quiet and undemonstrative but clear and direct", and which answered a part of Hewitt's temperament which had been suppressed. Finally, and most importantly, he began his lifelong work of excavation and discovery of the poetry of Ulster, starting with Richard Rowley
Richard Rowley
Richard Rowley was the pseudonym of Richard Valentine Williams , born at 79 Dublin Road, Belfast, Ireland, who wrote poetry, plays and stories.-Early life:...
, Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell (poet)
Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet and lyricist. He wrote under the Gaelicised version of his name Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil...
and George William Russell
George William Russell
George William Russell who wrote under the pseudonym Æ , was an Irish nationalist, writer, editor, critic, poet, and painter. He was also a mystical writer, and centre of a group of followers of theosophy in Dublin, for many years.-Organisor:Russell was born in Lurgan, County Armagh...
(AE). This research culminated, in part, with the publications of Fibres, Fabric and Cordage in 1948, Rhyming Weavers and other Country Poets of Antrim and Down (based on his MA thesis, Ulster Poets 1800-1870 of 1951) in 1974, and a book called The Rhyming Weavers in 1979. All of these publications and more, were based on his interest in the Ulster rhyming weaver poets
Weaver Poets
Weaver Poets, Rhyming Weaver Poets and Ulster Weaver Poets were a collective group of poets belonging to an artistic movement who were both influenced by and contemporaries of Robert Burns and the Romantic movement.-Origins:...
of the 19th century, such as Henry MacDonald Flecher, David Herbison, Alexander MacKenzie, James MacKowen, and James Orr
James Orr (poet)
James Orr was a poet or rhyming weaver from Ulster also known as the Bard of Ballycarry, who wrote in English and Ulster Scots. He was the foremost of the Ulster Weaver Poets, and was writing contemporaneously with Robert Burns...
.
Hewitt himself felt that his juvenilia ended with the poem Ireland (1932), which he placed at the start of his Collected Poems (1968), and indeed it is more complex than most of his earlier work, and begins his lifelong preoccupation with bleak landscapes of bog and rock; with exile, and with the nature of belonging.
The 1930s
The 1930s was a period of transition in Hewitt's poetry, one in which he began seriously to address the tortured history of his native province, and the contradictions between his love for the people and the landscape, his inspiration in the radical dissenting tradition, and the bloody, fratricidal conflicts which scar Northern Ireland to this day. A key text is The Bloody Brae: A Dramatic Poem (finished in 1936, though not broadcast - on the Northern Ireland Home Service of the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
- until 1954; the Belfast Lyric Players performed a stage version in 1957, which they revived in 1986), which tells of a legendary massacre of Roman Catholics
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
by Cromwellian
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
troops in Islandmagee
Islandmagee
Islandmagee is a peninsula on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Carrickfergus. It is part of the Larne Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural community with a long history since the mesolithic period.As part of an...
, County Antrim, in 1642. John Hill, one of the soldiers who has been racked by guilt since he participated in the slaughter, returns many years later to beg forgiveness. This he receives from the ghost of one of his victims, a gesture which she wraps in a condemnation of his self-indulgence, luxuriating in his guilt rather than taking positive action to combat bigotry. Another theme which was to become a fixture in Hewitt's poetry also first appears in The Bloody Brae; that is, a bold assertion of the right of his people to live in Ulster, rooted in their hard work and commitment to it:
- This is my country; my grandfather came here
- and raised his walls and fenced the tangled waste
- and gave his years and strength into the earth
Hewitt is not claiming a right of Imperial possession here; rather, the right to live alongside the native population.
Also in the 1930s, Hewitt was involved in with a group of young artists and sculptors known as the 'Ulster Unit', and acted as their secretary.
1940s and 1950s
During the 1940s and 1950s, Hewitt increasingly played the role of reviewer and art critic. He gained an MAMaster of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from Queen's University Belfast, with a thesis on Ulster poets from 1800–1870, in 1951. In 1951 he had been appointed deputy director and keeper of art at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery but in 1957, Hewitt left to take up the position of Art Director at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, United Kingdom....
in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, a postion he held until 1972. While in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, Hewitt started work on his unpublished autobiography, A North Light. He subsequently returned to Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
on his retirement in 1972.
Poetry
Hewitt's poem Neither an Elegy nor a Manifesto was recited at the August 2008 remembrance service 10 years after the Omagh bomb. Translations in Irish and Spanish of the final line "Bear in mind these dead" were read out from the site of the blast.Other poems include:
- Conacre (privately printed, 1943)
- No Rebel Word (Frederick Muller, 1948)
- The Lint Pulling (1948)
- Those Swans Remember: a poem (privately printed, 1956)
- Tesserae (Queen’s University Belfast Festival Publication, 1967)
- Collected Poems 1932-1967 (MacGibbon & Kee, 1968)
- The Day of the Corncrake: poems of the nine glens (Glens of Antrim Historical Society, 1969; 2nd edition 1984)
- The Planter and the Gael: an anthology of poems by John Hewitt & John Montague (Arts Council of Northern IrelandArts Council of Northern IrelandThe Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead development agency for the arts in Northern Ireland....
, 1970) - An Ulster Reckoning (privately printed, 1971)
- The Chinese Fluteplayer (privately printed, 1974)
- Scissors for a One-Armed Tailor: Marginal Verses 1929-1954 (privately printed, 1974)
- Out of My Time: poems 1967-1974 (Blackstaff Press, 1974)
- Time Enough: Poems New and Revised (Blackstaff Press, 1976)
- The Rain Dance: Poems New and Revised (Blackstaff Press, 1978)
- Kites in Spring: a Belfast boyhood (Blackstaff Press, 1980)
- The Selected John Hewitt (Blackstaff Press, 1981)
- Mosaic (Blackstaff Press, 1981)
- Loose Ends (Blackstaff Press, 1983)
- Freehold and Other Poems (Blackstaff Press, 1986)
- The Collected Poems of John Hewitt (Ed. Frank OrmsbyFrank OrmsbyFrancis Arthur Ormsby is a Northern Irish poet.He was educated at St Michael's College, Enniskillen and Queen's University Belfast. He was editor of The Honest Ulsterman from 1969 to 1989, and has also edited the Poetry Ireland Review. Since 1976 he has been Head of English at the Royal Belfast...
) (Blackstaff Press, 1991)
Prose
- Ancestral Voices: the selected prose of John Hewitt (Ed. Tom Clyde) (Blackstaff Press, 1987)
Drama
- Two Plays: The McCrackens, The Angry Dove (Ed. Damian Smyth) (Lagan Press, 1999)
Art criticism
- Colin MiddletonColin MiddletonColin Middleton MBE was an Irish artist and surrealist.Middleton was born in 1910 in Belfast. He trained at Belfast College of Art, he was heavily influenced by the work of Vincent van Gogh. He regarded himself as the only surrealist working in Ireland in the 1930s.His work first appeared at the...
(Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1976) - Art in Ulster (with Mike Catto) (Blackstaff Press, 1977)
- John Luke (artist)John Luke (artist)John Luke was an Irish artist. He was born in Belfast at 4 Lewis Street. The fifth of seven sons and one daughter of James Luke and his wife Sarah, originally from Ahoghill. He attended the Hillman Street National School and in 1920 went to work at the York Street Flax Spinning Company...
1906-1975 (Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1978)