The priest in charge of Lydiate at the time I was there told me he was collecting for a regular church or chapel, and hoped soon to make a commencement of the building.  Some years later he was able to do so.  Our church choir at Copperas Hill, Liverpool, was then considered one of the best in the diocese.  The choirmaster and organist, John Richardson, was a distinguished composer of Catholic church music, and held in such high esteem that, for any important celebration, he could always secure the services of the chief members of 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.