John Hewitt (1) (1907–)

John Harold Hewitt, born in 1907, became the first resident writer at Queen’s University Belfast in 1976, as an influential political Northern Irish poet in the mid twentieth-century. From 1930s socialist poet to 1940s art critic, Hewitt dedicated himself to literary translations of Northern Irish conflicts, in the decades following the 1921 partition of Ireland. Hewitt’s poetry resonated with all communities in Northern Ireland: while he initially became involved with the British Labour Party, he frequently described himself as Ulster, Irish, British and European, committed to peace and pacifism in the region. Among his most noteworthy poetry, The Bloody Brae: A Dramatic Poem describes an infamous massacre of Roman Catholics in 1642, and reminded the world that Northern Ireland has seen since bloodshed and pain in his own time.