Following his ordination in 1907 he was appointed headmaster of Christ Church Cathedral Grammar School and curate of Drumcondra and North Strand where he remained until 1911.
In 1923 he was appointed rector of Christ Church, Leeson Park, Dublin and he spent the next 15 years of his ministry there until his election to the House of Bishops.
While Rector of Christ Church, Leeson Park, he was also chaplain to the Molyneux Female Blind Asylum and in this, as in many other charitable works, he was an indefatigable worker and a first rate organiser.
When his chaplaincy came to an end the trustees of the institution put on record their appreciation of the zealous manner in which Canon Hughes had discharged the work of both chaplain and rector.
As a bishop he continued to show the same earnest and unfailing zeal in the carrying out of his episcopal duties that had characterised the earlier years of his ministry.
He was one of the best known and most popular men in the church and during the years when he ministered in Dublin, he made many friends, both clerical and lay and was admired and respected by all who knew him.
Albert's obituary describes him as “a distinguished Churchman, a great Christian, a fine scholar and a notable organiser”.