Pearse Hutchinson. Image source gallerypress.com
Pearse Hutchinson was born in Glasgow of Irish parents in 1927 and reared in Dublin.
A polyglot, he lived in Spain for almost ten years in the 1950s and 60s.
His collections include Tongue Without Hands (Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1963); Faoistin Bhacach (Baile Átha Cliath, An Clóchomhar, 1968); Expansions (The Dolmen Press, 1969); Le Cead na Gréine (An Clóchomhar, 1992); Watching the Morning Grow (Dublin, The Gallery Press, 1972); The Frost is all Over (The Gallery Press, 1975); Selected Poems (Oldcastle, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1980); Climbing the Light (The Gallery Press, 1985); The Soul that Kissed the Body (Selected Poems in Irish with translations into English, The Gallery Press, 1990); Barnsley Mainstream (The Gallery Press, 1995); Collected Poems (The Gallery Press, 2002), published to mark his 75th birthday; and At Least for a While (The Gallery Press, 2008).
He has also published translations from Catalan and Galicoportugeuse, and, with Melita Cataldi, Italian versions of Old Irish Poetry. Done into English, a collection of translations – notably from Catalan and Gallico-Portugeuse – was published by The Gallery Press in 2003.
He is former editor of Cyphers, which he founded with the poets Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, MacDara Woods, and Leland Bardwell.
A founding member of Aosdána, he died in Dublin on January 14, 2012.
Irish Times Obituary
Pearse Hutchinson at The Gallery Press
Pearse Hutchinson at Wikipedia
At Ease with Elsewhere – Review of Pearse Hutchinson’s Collected Poems by Philip Colman at drb
She Fell Asleep in the Sun
Pearse Hutchinson at The National Library of Ireland
Pearse Hutchinson was a one-off poet and a gentle and kind friend for many years. His passing is a great loss to Irish literature in both ‘official’ languages, and a great loss to the champions of ‘minority’ languages and minority causes everywhere. Slán abhaile, Pearse. R.I.P. ……….
Hugh McFadden