7 minute read
Nuala Noblett (Belfast
The title of W.J. McCormack’s book published in 2003 ‘The Silence of Barbara Synge’ could also have been a title applicable to the life of Roberta Hewitt (1904-1975). He says on page 2:
“The woman mentioned in the book’s title may not acquire any more extensive biography in the course of the pages which follow. But her condition emerges of how indicative of how family history is channelled towards celebrated figures (the dramatist J. M. Synge 18711909) through others whose fate is to remain uncelebrated, even suppressed.”
Roberta’s diaries 1947-1974 break that silence. Her husband John Hewitt left the diaries to his nephew Keith Miller who donated his papers to PRONI:
“His decision to make that diary public indicates his recognition that her voice had been temporarily occluded by his reputation but that it might one day be heard.” 5
It is difficult to select one thing that I think people should know about Roberta. The feature of her personality that shines through the diary for me is her confidence in her ability to: 1. Be proactive in her efforts to initiate social changes for the betterment of society. 2. Interact with ease in a creative and social sense with John and with the intelligent creative artistic company of their era: Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin, Michael
McLaverty, Michael Longley, Micheál Mac Liammóir, Louis MacNeice, Brendan
Behan, John Luke, Colin Middleton and Charles McAuley to name but a few. 3. Write her diary with the style of a natural storyteller. Her honesty, sense of humour and lyricism make it a compelling read. Roberta begins her education at Agnes Street elementary school, Belfast. Roberta’s father Robert dies in December 1915 age 52 years. She leaves elementary school at 14 years of age in 1918. She went to office work at the age of 14 years during the war and got into the Flax Control Board.
Roberta's 1949 passport photo. PRONI: D3838/1/1
5 The Field Anthology of Irish Writing, Volume 4 (2002): p.1012
PRONI: D3838/3/19
She works as a Telephone Operator and Enquiry Office Clerk in the Flax Supplies Committee, Belfast from October 1919 to March 1921. She emigrates to Canada in 1929 and New York in 1930. Roberta comes home on holiday in 1932 and writes in her diary: “remet Johnny” [John Hewitt]. They get married in 1934. She becomes an integral part of his life.
They were both convinced Socialists, and the couple became members of The Independent Labour Party, The Belfast Peace League (Roberta served as secretary before her marriage), The Left Book Club and the British Civil Liberties Union. Then we kept a house full of refugees in a house in Duncairn Gdns. which was called ‘The Red House’ for a couple of years for our Government wouldn’t allow them to work.6
“They were also instrumental in the formation of a progressive art group, ‘The Ulster Unit’, which included John Luke, Colin Middleton and others.” 7
“1938 or thereabouts we worked very hard for ‘Aid to Spain’ against Franco. It was not a popular cause here. We collected a shipload of goods food & clothes & medical aid. Roberta was an active volunteer in the Nursery School Association. She was one of the founders of the Edenderry Nursery School in 1938 and Frederick Street Nursery School in 1941 and worked as honorary secretary for both of these Belfast schools. She still found time to serve on the Management Committee for the Northern Ireland Fever Hospital (Purdysburn). In a newspaper interview, Roberta says of herself:
“I am a Socialist because I believe in equality of opportunity for all human beings regardless of birth, creed or colour. I feel any exploitation
6 Roberta Hewitt's 1947-1950 Diary (D3838/4/2/1): p. 43 7 https://www.johnhewittsociety.org/about-john-hewitt/
of man by man, class by class or nation by nation to be morally wrong. My ideas came from my home background, which was Christian Socialist, and later working in nursery schools in industrial areas in the 1930s. I was shocked by the consequences of insecurity, unemployment and illness.” 8
During 1938 they were both involved in ‘Aid in Spain’. Her diary entries swing from being disparaging to herself and resenting her perceived role in her partnership with John, to embracing wholeheartedly her position of wife to her literary acclaimed husband. She writes:
“43 sounds fierce. I can’t get used to the idea it is me who is that age. I am just as lightheaded & indiscreet as I was at 20. Often, I have gained since, my marriage especially, a bit of knowledge about writing & art etc. & I do feel more tolerant & more forgiving to people in general. Tho’ I can be biting & bitter when I think I am ‘wronged’.” 9
Describing her meeting with Maureen McNeill: “I feel very uncouth beside her. Clever women rather frighten me at first. If she gets to like us she won’t mind.” 10
“He should have married a more intelligent woman with money. It is sometimes too much for me to be cook & cleaner, literary confident, wife & fan & then try to keep a person on the boards that is Roberta & not just Johnny’s wife […] Johnny is obviously the nominated Bard. my job is too [sic] keep the wheels greased & remain a nonentity. But I can’t remain quiet for if there is any conversation I am in it before I know[…]” 11
8 Newspaper clipping (John Hewitt Society) 9 Roberta Hewitt's 1947-1950 Diary (D3838/4/2/1): p. 5 10 Ibid: p. 9 11 Ibid: p. 73-74 12 Ibid: p. 29 13 Ibid: p. 25 14 Ibid: p. 16 15 Ibid: p. 21 Her own perception of herself is contrary to how she interacts with the creative people in John’s world. Advise to John Luke:
“He is extremely self assured bordering on the self-righteous - he is sure his work is good - the best in Ireland at least. I told him he was 'conceity'. But again we think he is the best, the most serious painter - living for his work alone, & is it wrong for him to feel he is right when we think he is right, & we praise his work?”12
She is stoic in her reaction to not being voted on to the Nursery School committee: “A bit embarrassing but I let it go. I will serve this year & retire. I do shoot out my neck sometimes. They are all ‘Ladies’ & ‘Gentlemen’.” 13
Her dismissive critique of the author ‘Sheridan’ saying he is a “queer customer - I needn’t read anymore about him.” 14
“Americans are either dull businessmen who can make a million or a hundred bucks or else immense creatures like Wright, Whitman, Wallace [...]15
Roberta's Membership Card. PRONI: D3838/4/3
Roberta writes beautiful descriptions of scenes in Cushendall: We have no time for succulence. Hurry! The barbed wire must be fastened. We are too old for scarlet reins;18
"We watched the sun first yellowing the top of Garron, then Trostan & creeping over to Tieve Bulliagh. Trostan wearing the shadow of rump of Garron – slowly lighting the fields & lastly our private mountain Tiveragh – I always think of wee Tiveragh as a mountain – It is a mountainous wee hill.”16
She describes beautifully and atmospherically an evening walk with John down Layde Road, Cushendall, and going into the dark chapel:
“I could not pray but I tried to concentrate on the spirit of the church & what it might mean to the coughing woman & the heavy footed tip shuffling man and wondered what help they got from the dusty crib with the only light in the church. Johnny was quiet and hoped he would find comfort there.” 17
She wrote this “Surrealist Poem” for Irish Jewry publication under the name Ruby Black:
Light up. The end is near. Slow motion pauses on a speck of time. The beer gardens in February are green, The withered Laws A simple sentence marks the end of an era: “J goes to Sligo to WB Yeats funeral at 3 o’c.” 19
Roberta in Cushendall in 1955, John Hewitt Society.
16 Ibid: p.138 17 Ibid: p.33 18 Northman: John Hewitt (2015): p.62 19 Roberta Hewitt's 1947-1950 Diary (D3838/4/2/1): p.145
Roberta's personal documents. PRONI: D3838/1/1
