Katherine Hughes: A Life and a Journey

From "Canadian Imperialist" to Irish Republican Activist; From Emerald, Prince Edward Island, to Ireland

A thorough biography of Katherine Hughes (1876-1925), originally a member of the Irish Catholic community in Emerald, Prince Edward Island.

Pádraig Ó Siadhail

6 X 9 inches, 384 pages
8 pages of archival photos

Pádraig Ó Siadhail is an Associate Professor and holder of the D'Arcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His scholarly publications include a history of Irish language theatre and a critical biography of Piaras Béaslaí (1881-1965), the Liverpool-born journalist, Irish-language writer and Irish Revolution-era political activist. Pádraig Ó Siadhail has also published a collection of short stories and four novels in Irish. His most recent novel, Beirt Bhan Mhisniúla (2011), recreates the friendship and literary collaboration between Katherine Hughes and Pádraic Ó Conaire, the most important Irish-language writer in the early decades of the twentieth century.

I want to tell you why I changed from a Canadian Imperialist to Irish, a proper Irish person. (Katherine Hughes)

A Priest-friend, whose friendship I still possess, but from whom I am divided as wide as the poles in regard to Irish aspirations, wrote me on the occasion of her death, "Poor Catherine [sic] Hughes has passed away; she died lonely, and her funeral was remarkable for the number absent from it. Surely she deserved more, and from the [Irish] Republicans, too." Yes, my Priest-friend was right, she did deserve more respect than was offered on that occasion by the Republicans of New York; and, just as certainly, she deserved the best that any Irishman, or Irishwoman, or anyone that ever did anything for the cause of Ireland, could do to respect her and her memory. (P. E. Magennis)

ATLANTIC BOOK AWARDS WINNER