The journalist and Irish Times contributor Brian Hutton has died suddenly. He was 46. From Derry, Mr. Hutton was deputy news editor of the Press Association (PA) news agency for more than a decade and was based in its Dublin office until 2017.
He wrote extensively for The Irish Times as a freelance journalist over the past five years and was also a founding co-director of independent radio production company Old Yard Productions. He died on Saturday after becoming unwell.
The former Ireland editor of the PA, Deric Henderson, paid tribute to Mr. Hutton, describing him as “hugely gifted”. “He went about his business quietly, free of drama or any fuss, and never failed to meet a deadline, no matter how tight,” he said.
“He had a lovely manner and that’s probably why he was so good at his job. He got on well with people. They liked him.” Documentaries and programs made by Mr. Hutton’s company include the New York International Radio Awards finalist The Carberrys: Running in the Family, and Van Morrison: Belfast Cowboy, for ABC Australia.
Educated at St Columb’s College in Derry, Mr. Hutton began his career at the Belfast Telegraph in 2003. He did freelance ‘stringer’ work for the Daily Mirror, providing northwest coverage until 2004.
President Michael D Higgins said Mr. Hutton was “a fine journalist and known as a brilliant colleague with a reputation for reliability and a sensitive nature. “He will be missed by so many,” Mr. Higgins said in a statement.
The editor of The Irish Times, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, said Mr. Hutton was “a superb journalist whose sharp news instinct, observational skill, and natural curiosity meant his byline invariably appeared on the biggest and most important stories. He was also great company: warm, open, interested in other people.”
Mr. Hutton was involved in The Irish Times Lives Lost initiative during the Covid pandemic, and in a separate project last summer that chronicled all violent deaths of women in Ireland over the past 25 years. The northern editor of The Irish Times, Freya McClements, said he was “the best of journalists, the best of friends and the best of men”: (SOURCE)
