Kathleen Hughes

Kathleen Winifred Hughes (8 September 1926, Middlesbrough – 20 April 1977) was an English historian. Her specialisation was Irish ecclesiastical history, particularly the early Christian Church in Ireland.

Hughes remains a highly regarded historian over thirty years after her early death. A mark of this respect was demonstrated with the inclusion of two of her articles in volume one of A New History of Ireland, published in 2006. Despite both having been written in 1974, they were included because:

Hughes earned her Ph.D. in London, and became a fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. She was the Nora Chadwick Reader in Celtic Studies, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge. Among her best-known works was The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish Church, which was co-written with Dr. Hamlin.

In 1973 she delivered the British Academy's Sir John Rhŷs Memorial Lecture.

Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe: Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes was published in 1981 and edited by Dorothy Whitelock, Rosamond McKitterick and David Dumville. Hughes is also commemorated by the Kathleen Hughes Fund. In 2000, Hughes Hall, Cambridge instituted the annual Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lecture, a pamphlet is produced for each lecture by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic.