The Life Story of an Old Rebel | Page 3

the musical
profession in and about Liverpool. In this way, on one occasion Miss
Santley came to help us. She was accompanied by her brother, then a
boy, who has since risen to the highest position in the musical
world--the eminent baritone, Sir Charles Santley.
St. Nicholas' was, as it is yet, the pro-Cathedral of the diocese, and
whenever a new church had to be opened, or there was any important
ceremonial anywhere in Lancashire, our choir was generally invited. In
this way I was delighted to go to the opening of the new church at
Lydiate, so that I was taking part in the third stage of the Catholic
history of the diocese--having said a prayer in the old ruin, and attended
Mass in Rimmer's, and now assisting at the solemn High Mass at the
opening of the Church of our Lady, not far from the old chapel of St.
Catherine.
At the time I went to Mass in Lumber Street Chapel, Liverpool, which
is nearly 70 years since, there were but four other chapels, as they were
generally called then, in the town--Copperas Hill (St. Nicholas'), Seel
Street (St. Peter's), St. Anthony's and St. Patrick's. It must have been a
custom acquired in the Penal days to call the older Catholic places of
worship rather after the names of the streets in which they were situated
than of the saint to whom they were dedicated. During the Famine
years the bishops and clergy must have found it extremely difficult to
provide for the tremendous influx of our people. I have seen them
crowded out into the chapel yards and into the open streets; satisfied if
they could get even a glimpse of the inside of the sacred building
through an open window. I see by the Catholic Directory there are at
the time I now write thirty-nine churches and chapels in Liverpool. The
schools have increased in a like proportion.

The progress in numbers, wealth and influence of the Irish people may
be pretty well marked by the gradual increase in the number of
churches and schools, which have been built for the most part by the
Irish and their descendants. All honour to the noble-hearted,
hard-handed toilers who have contributed to such work, and greater
glory still to the humble men who, after a hard week's work in a ship's
hold at the docks, or perhaps in the "jigger loft" of a warehouse eight
stories high, turn out every Sunday morning to act as "collectors," and
go in pairs from door to door, one with the book and the other with the
bag in hand, to raise the means of erecting the noble churches and
schools that everywhere meet our view in Liverpool to-day.
With regard to the social position our people occupy in Liverpool, there
have been many Irishmen who have come well to the front in the race
of life, some of whom have occupied the foremost positions in
connection with the public life of the town. On the other hand; a large
number of our fellow-countrymen in Liverpool are by no means in that
enviable condition. Many of them have set out from Ireland, intending
to go to America, but, their little means failing them, have been obliged
to remain in Liverpool. Here they considered themselves fortunate if
they met someone from the same part of the country as themselves to
give them a helping hand, for it is a fine trait in the Irish character--and
"over here in England" the trait has not been lost--that, however poor,
they are always ready to befriend what seems to them a still poorer
neighbour. Those who have lived here some time are glad to see
someone from their "own place," and, amid the squalor of an English
city, the imaginative Celt--as he listens to the gossip about the changes,
the marriages, and the deaths that have taken place since he left "home
"--for a brief moment lives once more upon "the old sod," and sees
visions of the little cabin by the wood side where dwelt those he loved,
of the mountain chapel where he worshipped, of a bright-eyed Irish girl
beloved in the golden days of youth. These and a host of other
associations of the past come floating back upon his memory, as he
hears the tidings brought by Terence, or Michael, or Maurya, who has
just "come over." It often so happens that, from the very goodness of
the Irish heart, the newcomers are frequently drawn into the same
miserable mode of life as the friends who have come to England before

them may have fallen into.
Irish intellect and Irish courage have in thousands of cases brought our
people to their proper place in the social scale, but it is only too often
the