Katherine Hughes (activist)

Little is known about Hughes' early career, but she is believed to have been a Catholic missionary to Canadian Indians in the late 19th century.[5] She became a teacher at the Akwesasne Reserve in summer 1899,[1] and founded the Catholic Indian Association in 1901.[7] Hughes was hired for her teaching position by the Department of Indian Affairs and had an annual salary of $300.[8] She ended her position as a teacher at Akwesasne in 1902 to become a writer.[5] She taught a class of 47 students, though absenteeism rates were high. Hughes also founded the Catholic Indian Association, an organization that helped graduated students find employment outside the reserve.[9]

Hughes declared that she planned to be a professional writer in 1902, after retiring from her teaching at Akwesasne.[5] Hughes had stories published in Catholic World and the Prince Edward Island Magazine.[1] She helped establish the Canadian Women's Press Club in 1904,[1] serving as its vice-president from 1909.[3] Hughes also became the recording secretary for the Canadian Women's Press Club. According to Kit Coleman, Hughes produced the best reportage of the organization's trip to Western Canada.[9] She worked for The Montreal Daily Star from 1903 to 1906,[5] covering the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.[10] In 1906, she switched to the Edmonton Bulletin, covering the Alberta Legislature for this paper.[11]

Hughes' first published book was a biography of her uncle entitled Archbishop O'Brien: Man and Churchman. The book was translated into various languages, and was favourably reviewed by The New York Times.[9] Her biography of Albert Lacombe, entitled Father Lacombe, the black-robe voyageur, was published in 1911.[1][12]

Hughes participated in the Women's Canadian Club of Edmonton in the early 20th century.[1] She was the secretary of the Catholic Women's League of Canada.[13]

In 1902, using stage coach, canoe, and boats, Hughes traveled alone through the Peace River and Athabasca districts of northern Alberta, acquiring artifacts for the Alberta archives.[14] She became the first provincial archivist for Alberta in 1908, while residing in Edmonton.[2] Shortly after leaving this position, she began working for Alberta Premier Alexander Rutherford, also working for his successor Arthur Sifton.[2] As a provincial archivist, she earned an annual salary of $1,000. Hughes was also chosen by Sifton to be his principal secretary, but she never formally received the title. Hughes was the first woman in Canada to hold this position.[15]

Hughes moved to London, England, to gain employment as secretary to John Reid, who was Alberta's first Agent General. In 1913, she was working in his Charing Cross offices. It is thought that the catalyst for Hughes' beliefs was a trip she took to Ireland in 1914.[16] (At the time, the Home Rule crisis was at its zenith.)[17]^:219 When Hughes had left London, she was considered a home-ruler that supported limited self-government for Ireland; on her return, she supported the goals of Sinn Féin. Ó Siadhal has theorized that Hughes' views may have started to shift before her visit to Ireland, as she had met members of the Gaelic League and other Irish expatriate organizations while living in London. However, he also believes that her trip to Ireland was a definitive experience, exposing her to the harsh reality of Ireland's social and economic conditions. Hughes eventually adopted the Irish equivalent of her name: Caitlín Ní Aodha. She described her own ideological journey as being from "Canadian imperialist to Irish – a proper Irish person." Hughes believed that the British government would never be fair with Irish aspirations.[16]

Hughes' principal task was recruitment of immigrants to Alberta. After losing her faith in the British empire itself, Hughes' recruitment efforts were more scarce. Hughes also opposed Canada's entry into World War I, which further impeded her recruitment efforts.[18] Hughes received a commission to write William Van Horne's biography. She returned to Canada in autumn 1915 to begin this assignment. Two events complicated her situation: Van Horne had died in September 1915 and the Easter Rising occurred in 1916. After the uprising, Hughes had a renewed zeal for Irish independence and promoted Irish self-determination while writing Van Horne's biography. By 1918, Hughes had lectured in every Canadian province and in several U.S. states. Hughes wrote about her views in Ireland, an 85-page book that was published in 1917.[19]

She resigned from her position in London in 1917; the following year, she began working for the Irish National Bureau in Washington, D.C. and gained a reputation as a skilled propagandist and orator. She spent the final months of 1919 touring the US South, establishing branches of the republican Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF) . Hughes' organisational experience, Canadian origins, and devout loyalty to the cause made her, in the view of Éamon de Valera, the ideal candidate for work in the "Canadian field". She was chosen to be the Canadian National Organizer for the Irish Self-Determination League.

The Self-Determination for Ireland League of Canada and Newfoundland (SDIL) originated in Montreal in May 1920, a emerging centre of Irish-Canadian nationalism. As early as 9 January 1919, a pro-Sinn Féin rally had taken place there, organised primarily by members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), and by the beginning of 1920, a branch of the FOIF was in place. Meanwhile, wary of the radical, republican platform of the American FOIF, the middle-class members of Montreal's St Patrick's Society established a new nationalist group in February: the Irish Canadian National League (ICNL), which adopted the less controversial, Wilsonian mantra of "self-determination" for Ireland.[20]

The two groups operated independently, so Hughes' first task was to unite them. Her chief ally in this task was Robert Lindsay Crawford, an Irish-Protestant journalist who had broken with unionism and, after briefly serving as the Grand Master of Independent lodges, with the Orange Order. In Canada from 1910, he reported for the Toronto Globe but, after the Easter Rising, fell foul of its liberal-unionist editorial line.[21] Crawford was named the SDIL's national president at the League's Ottawa Convention in October 1920.[20]

In the SDIL, Hughes worked on secret, sensitive tasks; according to Australian historian Richard Davis, semi-secrecy of such tasks "had to be preserved to avoid deportation from countries like Australia and New Zealand".[22] In 1918, Hughes was hired by the Irish Progressive League as a propagandist.[23]

Hughes likely met Pádraic Ó Conaire through the Gaelic League. Hughes and Ó Conaire collaborated on the play The Cherry Bird.[24]