With his appointment as COS the leadership of the IRA shifted from being Dublin based to leaders from the north of Ireland: McAteer, Seán McCaughey, Pearse Kelly and Eoin McNamee.

[5] On 15 January 1943 (along with three senior IRA men Patrick Donnelly, Ned Maguire and Jimmy Steele), he escaped over the wall from Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast.

[8] The statement denounced the British military presence in Northern Ireland as an "invasion of our rights" and warned that they will be targeted in "a resumption of hostilities between the Irish Republic and Great Britain".

[9] McAteer was subsequently rearrested on 21 November 1943, returned to Crumlin Road Gaol and participated in the ongoing hunger strike there.

With the loss of McAteer and increased pressure from the police, the Belfast IRA was no longer a significant fighting force.

In 1950, McAteer ran as a Sinn Féin candidate for the Londonderry constituency in the British general election on an independent republican abstentionist ticket.

Hugh McAteer's son, Aidan, was a personal assistant to Gerry Adams and onetime staff officer of the IRA's Belfast Brigade.