Edward McHugh (trade unionist)

Edward McHugh (21 August 1853–13 April 1915) was an Irish

), trade unionist, Labour activist and social reformer. He spent a great deal of his lifetime engaged in the struggle for social reform not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but also further afield, including spells in America and the Antipodes.

Born in rural County Tyrone to a smallholding family, before emigrating through economic necessity to the overcrowded industrial landscape of Greenock, and then Glasgow, Edward McHugh shared with his friend, Michael Davitt, experience of both sides of the land question. It is not surprising that, having witnessed rural and urban poverty at an early age, McHugh would become firmly committed to the ideals of Henry George, and convinced that land, and its inequitable distribution, should lie at the root of all social ills.

After moving to Glasgow as a teenager to find work as a compositor, McHugh found himself in a city with various possibilities for developing his education as a social reformer. The Irish who had fled to the city in such numbers after the

.

The ability shown by McHugh was then harnessed by the Trades Union movement, as he and his old friend

Gospel.’ The fact that McHugh was with Henry George at the time of the latter’s death in 1897 gave the Ulsterman a great caché in Single Tax circles for the rest of his life, and on returning to Birkenhead he settled down and spent the rest of his life striving for social reform through the propagation of the George’s theories.

References

• Andrew G. Newby, Ireland Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands
• Andrew G. Newby, The Life and Times of Edward McHugh (1853 - 1915): Land Reformer, Trade Unionist, and Labour Activist
• Andrew G. Newby, 'Labour Lives No. 19: Edward McHugh (1853-1915)', in Saothar, 42 (2017), pp. 99-102.
• Eric Taplin, The Dockers' Union: A Study of the National Union of Dock Labourers, 1889-1922, Leicester University Press, 1986.

See also

• Michael Davitt and his legacy today.
• Highland Land League

Trade union offices
Preceded by New position	General Secretary of the National Union of Dock Labourers 1889–1893	Succeeded by James Sexton