Hugh Cummiskey (1789 – December 12, 1871) was a leader of the early Irish community in Lowell, Massachusetts in the United States. Cummiskey was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and immigrated to Massachusetts in 1817. Cummiskey, while working as a dock worker in Charlestown, Boston, led 30 Irishmen in search of work 30 miles from Charlestown along the Middlesex Canal to Lowell on April 6, 1822. Prior to this, Hugh had asked Kirk Boott for the work. They were received by Boott at Frye's Tavern where he gave then tools and some funds for food. Little provision was made for housing; the mill owners considered them temporary workers. (It wasn't until 1828 that Cummiskey made Lowell his permanent home ) Cummiskey and his men began reconstruction on Pawtucket Canal on April 6, 1822.