In response to a letter from Cathleen, Éamon de Valera found work in Dublin for Harry as a clerk in the Labour Exchange, and later he held a post in the Stationery Office.
Unable to get work in Madrid, as he had hoped, he travelled instead to Geneva, where he got a job as a translator with the International Labour Office, which brought him into contact with Catalan exiles, speaking a language then largely suppressed in Spain.
A project to publish Hutchinson's translation of Espriu's La Pell de brau (The Bull-skin), fell through some years later.
In 1963, his first collection of original poems in English, Tongue Without Hands (the title a quotation from the Spanish epic El Cid), was published by Dolmen Press in Ireland.
In 1967, having spent nearly ten years altogether in Spain, Hutchinson returned to Ireland, making a living as a poet and journalist writing in both Irish and English.
There was some controversy around the appointment following accusations, later retracted, that Jeffares had been guilty of bias in the selection because of their joint Irish heritage.
[4] From 1977 to 1978 he compiled and presented Oró Domhnaigh, a weekly radio programme of Irish poetry, music and folklore for Ireland's national network, RTÉ.
His most recent English collection was Barnsley Main Seam (1995); the long title poem celebrates the splendours of York Minster and is a homage to the manual workers of the world.
"[5] A two-day symposium of events was held at Trinity College Dublin, to celebrate his 80th birthday in 2007, with readings from his works by writers including Macdara Woods, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Paul Durcan and Sujata Bhatt.
[6] In his final collection, At Least for a While (2008), which was shortlisted for the Poetry Now Award, he commented on the replacement of the traditional symbolism of Ireland with the Celtic Tiger: "Music and a small plant/ we had for emblems once./ Better, surely,/ than lion or eagle./ Now our proudest boast/ is a dangerous beast of prey.
... His poems are often short, they can appear delicate on the page, and they sometimes seem to record glimpses or passing glances, but they always embody and, at their best, articulate Hutchinson's desire for what he once called "true gentleness".