{{Short description|Irish industrialist and social campaigner (1808–1878)}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=January 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{distinguish|text=American actor Barnard Hughes}} {{distinguish|text=Irish rugby player Barney Hughes (rugby union)}} '''Bernard "Barney" Hughes'''<ref>[https://lennonwylie.co.uk/alphanames1843e2k.htm '1843 Belfast / Ulster Street Directory. Alphabetical List of the Gentry, Merchants, Manufacturers, Traders, etc., etc., In Belfast. Names E to K']. Lennonwylie, undated. Retrieved 16 January 2025</ref> (8 July 1808 – 23 September 1878) was a nineteenth-century Irish industrialist, social campaigner and politician.
thumb|right|Plaque commemorating Hughes at his former Belfast home|alt="Circular blue plaque with white lettering erected on a cream wall. Wording is as follows: 'Ulster History Circle. Barney Hughes 1808 ~ 1878, master baker, philanthropist, lived here'"
Hughes was the second in a family of eight children of Peter Hughes and Catherine Quinn. His mother was from Blackwatertown, Co. Armagh.<ref name="dib">Daniel Beaumont, [https://www.dib.ie/index.php/biography/hughes-bernard-barney-a4138 'Hughes, Bernard ('Barney')']. ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'', October 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2025</ref> He was born in Armagh, with the family soon moving to Blackwatertown.<ref>Jack Magee (2001). ''Barney: Bernard Hughes of Belfast 1808-1878'' (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation), p. 2</ref>
Hughes came to Belfast aged 18 in March 1827.<ref>Magee, p. 1</ref> For a number of years he worked his way up in the bakery business.<ref>[https://ulsterhistorycircle.org.uk/barney-hughes/ 'Barney Hughes']. Ulster History Circle, 12 April 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2025</ref> Under the trading name of the "Railway and Model Bakeries", Hughes had a bakery and mill up and running in Donegall Street in 1840, followed by a second in Donegall Place in 1846, then a third on the Falls Road in 1850.<ref>[https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/alphanames1861g2L.htm '1861 Belfast / Ulster Street Directory. Alphabetical List of the Principal Inhabitants and Shopkeepers of Belfast and Ballymacarrett']. Lennonwylie, undated. Retrieved 21 January 2025</ref> By 1870 his was the largest baking and milling industry in Ireland.<ref name="Fitzsimons">{{cite journal|last1=Fitzsimons|first1=James|title=The Rise & Fall of The Breadservers|journal=Lecale Review|date=2015 |issue=13}}</ref>
Part of Hughes' 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:
{{poemquote|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.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zfkcscw/articles/zm9rnrd 'Barney Hughes']. BBC, undated. Retrieved 15 January 2025</ref>
thumb|right|A Belfast bap|alt="Photograph of a large, pale-coloured lozenge-shaped bread loaf shown on a wooden tray"
His Donegall Place premises in the heart of the city was often attacked by Protestant mobs.<ref>Magee, p. 84</ref> Hughes' third mill, located in Divis Street just below the lower Falls Road, was commonly called "Barney's Mill".<ref>{{cite web |title=1884 Hungarian Flour Mill |url=http://archiseek.com/2017/1884-hungarian-flour-mills-divis-street-belfast/ |website=Archiseek |date=26 January 2017 |accessdate=20 March 2020}}</ref> After his death his son Edward took over the business and expanded it to a new site on the Springfield Road.<ref name="dib"/>
In his early years in Belfast Hughes lived in Lancaster Street in the north of the city. 1852 saw him at no. 35 Queen Street in the city centre.<ref>[https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/1852names2.htm '1852 Belfast / Ulster Street Directory. Names – Alphabetically']. Lennonwylie, undated. Retrieved 21 January 2025.</ref> By 1868 he had moved round the corner to a desirable residence in 11 College Square North.<ref>[https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/alphanames1868gh.htm '1868 Belfast Street Directory. Names Alphabetically']. Lennonwylie, undated. Retrieved 21 January 2025.</ref> He also lived in Holywood.<ref name="dib"/>
Hughes was the first Catholic elected to Belfast Corporation and became a JP.<ref name="dib"/> A campaigner against sectarianism and for social justice, he gave evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into serious sectarian riots of 1857 and 1864, thereby angering the Tory establishment in the city. Hughes informed the 1857 inquiry that the Catholic people were the "bones and sinew" of the city.<ref>Éamon Phoenix (2001). ''Two Acres of Irish History: Study Through Time of Friar's Bush and Belfast, 1570-1918'' (Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation), p.16</ref> Although he was sometimes in conflict with the Catholic Church,<ref name="dib"/> Hughes gave land for the building of St Peter's Cathedral in the Lower Falls.<ref>Magee, p. 285</ref> He gave a donation towards the erection of a statue, still known locally as the 'Black Man', of fiery anti-Catholic clergyman Dr Henry Cooke.<ref name="bbcnews">[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6729891.stm 'Plaque marks home of city bap man']. BBC News, 7 June 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2025</ref>
Hughes was married twice and had six children. He spoke Irish fluently and, like his father, supported Daniel O’Connell.<ref>Magee, p. 2</ref> Of the nationalist leader, he said: "If it were not for O'Connell I would not be in the position I am now in".<ref>Magee, p.1</ref>
At his request, Hughes' funeral was private. Belfast Working Men's Institute, of which he was a trustee, paid him a tribute at its next AGM: "he was beloved by the working classes".<ref>Magee, pp. 229–230</ref> Hughes is buried in Friar's Bush Graveyard, the oldest cemetery in Belfast.<ref>{{cite web |title=Friar's Bush |url=http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/community/cemeteries/friarsbush.aspx |website=Belfast City Council |accessdate=20 March 2020}}</ref>
In June 2007, a plaque commemorating Hughes was erected at his College Square North home.<ref name="bbcnews"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Bernard}} Category:Businesspeople from Belfast Category:Members of Belfast City Council Category:Businesspeople from County Armagh Category:1808 births Category:1878 deaths Category:19th-century Irish philanthropists Category:19th-century Irish businesspeople