A church in the heart of Manchester has hired a project worker to document the history of the parish from the viewpoint of the now elderly residents who lived there, before the local residential area was demolished in the 1960s, writes Bernadette Kehoe. Holy Name served mainly Irish immigrant families until the housing in the parish was cleared and Manchester University took over much of the land.
With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project, “Your Holy Name Story” wants to reconnect elderly people with their cultural and religious heritage. A postgraduate student has been employed to visit former parishioners, some now in care homes, to record their memories of an almost forgotten era.
The parish priest, Fr William Pearsall SJ, said that most of the elderly former parishioners are now only connected to Holy Name through their memories. Michael Kinnealy, 92, told The Tablet he returns to the church three days a week to help out because “it’s in my blood”. His earliest memory is of his First Holy Communion in 1932. He still recalls many family occasions at the church and “happy days” when thousands worshipped there.
Mr Kinnealy said the foundation in faith that he received at Holy Name helped him during the most difficult moment of his life – the Normandy landings, when he and other conscripts of 19 approached France with Rosary beads in their hands, praying aloud.
Nestled in the student area of central Manchester, Holy Name is now the chaplaincy for Manchester’s students run by the Jesuits, who founded the church 150 years ago. Fr Pearsall said the people living locally were deeply affected by the compulsory purchase of their properties and “dispersed” to other areas. He hoped the project would document the “tremendous role” Holy Name played in Manchester and serve to “recover a past that has been lost but not yet grieved for”.
Holy Name’s dimensions are on the scale of a cathedral. Yet still it couldn’t accommodate all the mourners at the funeral there in 1895 of the founder of the Hallé orchestra, Sir Charles Hallé. Fr Pearsall says today students in university music departments make a superb contribution to the liturgy. “Sir Charles would be pleased to know his musical heritage continues, with our outstanding choirs,” he said.
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