St Joseph's Society
When I arrived in Underlow I was chosen to join the College Schola, which was the start of a six year stint – three years in the school and three years in the senior house. This was the beginning of a love affair with plainchant and choral music that has stayed with me all of my life.
In the early years, the musical director was Mgr. Joe Turner who was a perfectionist, so the standard of singing was of the highest order; as was the whole of the liturgy, particularly for Christmas and Holy Week. It is interesting in this regard that Sir Anthony Kenny, who was a student in the school in the late forties before going to the English College in Rome, wrote in his autobiography ‘A Path from Rome’: “I have written at length about the Christmas and Passiontide liturgies because, when I look back, their memory remains the most vivid of those I have retained from my years at Upholland. No ceremonies, sacred or secular, which I have ever witnessed since, no theatrical or operatic performances however magnificent or sophisticated, have ever compared to these liturgies.” This is high praise indeed.
On the departure of Mgr. Turner, Fr Kevin Snape took over as musical director. He had a hard act to follow but he certainly succeeded in maintaining the high standard of choral singing. I can remember recording a “Mass of the Immaculate Conception” as an LP in the College chapel for distribution by a recording company in Canada. This was a great experience and was a mark of how highly regarded the College choir must have been.
Another musical window that was opened up to me in my first year was Gilbert & Sullivan. The Senior House production that year was ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ and I seem to recollect as youngsters in the Schola being involved as part of the chorus. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven!
My first year, 1952/53, was the year of the Queen’s Coronation and what a day that was! There was celebratory food, of course, and the ‘non-communication’ rule between the Lower and Higher Lines, together with the Senior House, was suspended for the day. Fr Alex Jones was carried around the College in a sedan chair by the senior students and, with his active connivance and consent, was thrown (from his throne??) into the Top Lake in front of the College, to the great delight of the younger students.
In the afternoon the senior students laid on quizzes and games for us youngsters in the College gym, and in the evening, on the field in front of the Senior House wing, there were fireworks and the most enormous bonfire that I had ever set eyes on; and thus ended a most momentous and wonderful day.
In the late 1950s and the early 1960s, we saw the arrival into the Senior House of students from Africa and the West Indies. The first to arrive was Egidio Nkaijenobwo from Uganda. We knew him as ‘Giles’. He was ordained priest in 1961 and returned to his home country, where he retired in 2014 as Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Kasese. Two students then arrived from Kingston, Jamaica, and Fathers Verley (1962) and Bygraves (1964) were ordained at Upholland, before they too returned to their home country. All of these students were most warmly received and integrated well into the College community, and they spent holidays at Christmas and Easter in the homes of fellow students and their families, where they were made most welcome.
They certainly enjoyed their time at Upholland and returned to their homes enriched by their stay in the northwest of England. So, Giles returned to his diocese in Africa, and later became a Bishop, whilst Charles Dufour, one of the later West Indian students (after my time) returned home, eventually to become Archbishop of Kingston, Jamaica. Upholland must have done something right!
Sometime around 1960, a story about the ‘Soccer Saints’ was picked up by the press in the St Helens area, and I was one of them. Without my understanding the significance of the occasion, the press came to the College, took a few photographs of the team, and then ran a story which went viral, hitting most of the daily press at home and elsewhere. Indeed, some of my friends both in America and Ireland picked it up, ‘that a footballing team of students for the priesthood had remained unbeaten in over two years!’ There was to be a sting in the tale (!) however, when in the next fixture, against the Salford clergy, the College XI were beaten, and while the Salford clergy were quick to inform the press of their achievement, it didn’t have quite the impact of the original story!
I also played rugby at College, and from the photograph taken in 1961/2 possibly, we can see Marnie Cunningham (an ex-Irish international) back row, right. Matt Loughran and Pat Crowley were in the team also, as was the youthful figure of later to be Bishop, John Rawsthorne, on the back row, left. So too, is Michael McKenna, John de Ville, and on the front row, Joe Kelly, John Gildea, Frank Flynn, myself, and Peter Wilkinson, among others. Happy days!
In retrospect, I am most grateful to Upholland for my years spent there, and for all it gave me. I was tutored and guided by wonderful priests – too many to mention by name – and I can honestly say, hand on heart, and with so much bad press about sexual abuse, that I never experienced or saw anything of that nature, but only the highest regard for me as a person. This was also true of my fellow students. They became friends and have stayed friends for life, although some have now sadly passed on. May they rest in peace.