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The parish of St. Augustine’s,
Coatbridge, in Lanarkshire, was established
by Archbishop Charles Eyre in 1892 as part
of his concern to provide for the spiritual
and social needs of the ever-increasing
Catholic population in the West of Scotland.
The arrival of a new workforce mainly from
Ireland, together with their families, mostly
Catholic and many quite destitute, had inspired
the establishment of new parishes, often
in the care of priests from Ireland or northern
Europe and even from England.
The newly-founded parish
of St Augustine’s was entrusted to
the care of father John Hughes who was born
in Johnstown, Kilkenny in 1851. After his
studies in St Patrick’s College,Thurles
and in the Irish College in Paris John was
ordained in 1877 and served in St Margaret’s
Airdrie and St Mary’s Cleland before
coming to St.Augustine’s. The Hughes
family were to provide priests who would
serve with distinction, not only the church
in their native Ireland but much further
afield. In 1992, on the occasion of the
celebration of the centenary of the foundation
of the parish, there were four members of
the Hughes family still active in the ministry.
Monsignor Nicholas Hughes,Vicar General
of Clifton Diocese, his twin brothers, recently
retired to their native Johnstown after
service in the United States, and their
youngest brother, Jamie, a priest in New
South Wales.
The present fine Pugin
Church and school are monuments to Father
Hughes’ ambitions for the faith and
for the education of his parishioners, most
of whom were no strangers to poverty and
heavy industry. The first assistant, Thomas
Hopwell, was an Englishman from Leicester
who went on to play a significant part in
the life of the catholic community of Kilbirnie
in Ayrshire
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