Described as having an "ardent and self-confident manner", Hughes is first heard of in an Irish musical capacity (beyond being honorary organist at St Peter's Church on Antrim Road at the age of fourteen) collecting traditional airs and transcribing folksongs in North Donegal in August 1903 with his brother Fred, F.J. Bigger,Ardrigh Books and John Campbell. Dedicated to seeking out and recording such ancient melodies as were yet to be found in the more remote glens and valleys of Ulster, he produced Songs of Uladh (1904) with Joseph Campbell, illustrated by his brother John and paid for by Bigger. Throughout his career, he collected and arranged hundreds of traditional melodies and published many of them in his own unique arrangements. Three of his best-known works are the celebrated songs, My Lagan Love, She Moved Through the Fair, and Down by the Salley Gardens, which were published as part of his four collections of Irish Country Songs, his key achievement.Axel Klein: Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert (Hildesheim, 1996), p. 421. These were written in collaborations with the poets Joseph Campbell and Padraic Colum, and Yeats himself. A dispute with Hamilton Harty over copyright on My Lagan Love was pursued on Bigger's advice, but failed.
