Not to be confused with American actor Barnard Hughes. Not to be confused with Irish rugby player Barney Hughes (rugby union).
Bernard "Barney" Hughes (8 July 1808 – 23 September 1878) was a nineteenth-century Irish industrialist, politician and social campaigner. He was born in Blackwatertown, Co. Armagh, but moved to Belfast in 1826. Hughes set up his bakery in 1840 and by 1870 had the largest baking and milling industry in Ireland. His continuing fame is due to his development and production of cheap and wholesome bread. The most famous item was the Belfast bap, more commonly known as Barney's Baps. His bread is recalled in the rhyme:
Barney Hughes' bread
Sticks to your belly like lead.
Not a bit of wonder
You fart like thunder
Barney Hughes' bread.
The rhyme was inspired by the consequences of the use of beans and peas in the recipe to keep the price of the bread low.
His main mill, "Barney's Mill", was located in Divis Street just below the lower Falls Road. Hughes' son Edward took over the business after his death and expanded it to a new site on the Springfield Road.
Hughes was the first Catholic elected to Belfast Corporation and became a JP. A campaigner against sectarianism and for social justice, he gave evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the sectarian riots of 1857 and 1864, thereby angering the Tory establishment in the city. Although he was sometimes in conflict with the Catholic Church, Hughes gave land for the building of St Peter's Cathedral in the Lower Falls.
Hughes spoke Irish fluently and supported Daniel O’Connell. He was married twice and had six children. He lived in Lancaster Street in north Belfast and later in Donegall Street and Holywood.
He is buried in Friar's Bush Graveyard, the oldest cemetery in Belfast.
References
- ^ '1843 Belfast / Ulster Street Director. Alphabetical List of the Gentry, Merchants, Manufacturers, Traders, etc., etc., In Belfast. Names E to K'. Lennonwylie, undated. Retrieved 16 January 2024
- ^ Daniel Beaumont, 'Hughes, Bernard ('Barney')'. Dictionary of Irish Biography, October 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2025
- Fitzsimons, James (2015). "The Rise & Fall of The Breadservers". Lecale Review (13).
- 'Barney Hughes'. BBC, undated. Retrieved 15 January 2024
- "1884 Hungarian Flour Mill". Archiseek. 26 January 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
- Magee, Jack (2001). Barney: Bernard Hughes of Belfast. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. p. 285. ISBN 1903688051.
- "Friar's Bush". Belfast City Council. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
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