Headstone unveiling for Glenfarne’s P.A. McHugh

A headstone marking the grave of Leitrim man and Irish patriot PA McHugh will be unveiled on Tuesday, May 30 at 5pm at Sligo Old Cemetery following a gofundme campaign.

Patrick Aloysius McHugh was born in 1854 at Annagh, Glenfarne. After his education, he went to Paris for a year and, on returning to Sligo, became a teacher at Summerhill College.

PA subscribed to the principles of the Land League, set up by Michael Davitt in 1879, “the land for the people,” and he joined the Sligo Borough Branch of the Irish National League in 1885.

That same year he became the owner/editor of the Sligo Champion, a position he retained right up to his death in 1909. In his newspaper, he was true to his Nationalist ideals and never missed an opportunity to further those aims.

PA was secretary of the first Gaelic Athletic Association Branch in Sligo town, which was established in August 1885. In 1892 he became the Member of Parliament for the constituency of North Leitrim. His representation of his constituents’ grievances caused the Coercion Act’s repeated invocations to silence him and his newspaper. He served six sentences under the Coercion Act in four separate terms of imprisonment.

He served time in Sligo, Derry and Tullamore jails. On each release, he emerged undaunted and was hailed a hero by his loyal followers. PA was elected Mayor of Sligo in 1888, again in 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1900. He was an MP at Westminster from 1892 to 1906, representing North Leitrim and sat for North Sligo from 1906 until his death.

In 1898, PA was involved in the commemorations of 1798 and the establishment of the Bartholomew Teeling monument at Collooney, Co Sligo, and the Lady Erin Statue at the Market Cross in Sligo Town.

In April 1901, he was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail and was granted the freedom of Dublin City on his release in October. In the 1906 General Election, PA was returned for both constituencies of North Leitrim and North Sligo.

However, he eventually chose the Sligo seat. On May 31, 1909, PA died in hospital in Dublin. His long work hours and time spent in jails undermined his health, and the Sligo Champion described his death as “A Nation's Loss.”

The Sligo Champion noted that “Ireland had lost a fearless and unflinching advocate in the vindication of their just rights.
It was observed that PA was always prepared to make any personal sacrifice to defend the Irish people. He was an “able, eloquent and strenuous worker in the nationalist cause” and “there was no more amiable, tolerant, and kindly Irish gentleman than Pat McHugh, as he was known to his friends.”

He was “one of the most high-minded and pure-souled of Irish patriots, the most devoted and affectionate of friends, and the noblest and most upright of men.

Sadly in the last number of years it was discovered there was no headstone on his grave.

There was a small stone there, but it was illegible. A gofundme page was set up to raise funds for the headstone which will be unveiled on Tuesday, May 30.