Archbishop John Joseph Hughes – Dr Patrick Fitzgerald

John Joseph Hughes was born on 24th June, 1797, at Annaloughan, near Augher.  In his talk Dr Patrick Fitzgerald will tell how this young man from the Clogher Valley joined members of his family who had already emigrated to Pennsylvania, entered a seminary after several unsuccessful applications, and became a priest. John Joseph Hughes went on to be installed as Archbishop of New York in 1850, and he laid the cornerstone for St Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, New York in 1858.

Dr Patrick Fitzgerald lives near the village of Seskinore in County Tyrone. His PhD research related to the subject of poverty and vagrancy in Early-Modern Ireland (1550-1770) and was awarded by Queen’s University, Belfast. Having been a curator of emigration history at the Ulster American Folk Park since 1990, he became Lecturer & Development Officer at the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies in 1998, where he is currently Head of Research and Development.

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