Tablet Contributor, Hugh A. Mulligan, Is Dead at 83

Hugh A. Mulligan, longtime correspondent for The Associated Press and a frequent contributor to The Tablet, died Wednesday, Nov. 26, at Danbury Hospital, Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and recently had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

He wrote for the AP for 50 years, covering popes, presidents, astronauts and royalty. He visited 150 countries, covering more than a dozen wars, including three reportorial stints in Vietnam. He was part of the press corps for 28 papal trips and three papal conclaves.

Born in Queens, Mulligan attended St. Patrick’s School, Astoria; Cathedral Prep and College, Brooklyn, where he edited The Gargoyle, the school’s literary magazine.

After serving as a rifleman in the European theater during World War II, he attended Marlboro College in Vermont, later earning graduate degrees at Harvard and Boston University.

Among his many honors, Mulligan was named Bard of the 2001 Great Irish Fair in Brooklyn. He was honored by his alma mater Cathedral Prep in 2002 with the Immaculata Award, the highest accolade the school presents to an alumnus. In 2003, he was one of two speakers at The Tablet’s 95th Anniversary dinner that also marked the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

In May, 2007, he accepted the Distinguished Communicator Award from the Diocese of Brooklyn at its annual World Communications Day luncheon. His thank-you remarks typically combined bits of biography, wry humor and reflection.

“It was tough growing up Catholic in the 1930s,” he said during his address at The Tablet’s anniversary dinner. “The Ave Maria Hour came on right after Father Coughlin, the same time as the Lone Ranger. In our house, the Lone Ranger was unhorsed by Friars of the Atonement up there in Garrison, N.Y. and Tonto gave way to Tantum Ergo.”

He added, “I began my journalistic career selling The Tablet, and now as the sun sets on my laptop, I find myself writing columns for The Tablet.

“To paraphrase Mary Queen of Scots, ‘In the beginning is my end.’ Or as Galileo Galilei once put it, ‘What goes around, comes around.’ And you know what a hell of a lot of trouble that got him into!”

He was one of several AP staffers who co-authored books on the Kennedy assassination and the 1967 Six-Day War. On his own, he wrote books about Vietnam, the racehorse Kelso and a Sherlock Holmes novel, titled “Christmas Murder at 221 Baker.”

His memoir “Been Everywhere, Got Nowhere” was released in 2005. It was compiled from a diary he wrote throughout his career.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Bridget (Murphy), whom he married in her home parish in Armagh, Ireland; and brothers Andrew of Las Vegas and John of Saugerties, N.Y., a former AP reporter and New York City assistant fire commissioner.

Carmela A. O’Donnell, 77, died of cancer on Nov. 27 at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Dec. 2 at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Astoria.

Mrs. O’Donnell was among  St. Francis’ first parishioners, and was active in the parish and school for many years as principal of the CCD program, a extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, and as a parish school volunteer for more than 30 years.

She also worked as an instructional assistant at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Jackson Heights.

At St. Francis, she instituted a CCD program for special needs children.

She was predeceased by her husband Charles and her daughter Maria. 

She is survived by her daughter Virginia McNamara and son-in-law Patrick, assistant archivist of the Diocese of Brooklyn. 

Burial was at St. John’s Cemetery, Middle Village.

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