Michael O'Neill

St Anthony's, Scotland Road Michael O'Neill

An inner-city English Catholic parish, close to Liverpool docks, which embodies two hundred years of Liverpool's heritage and history. Using documentary evidence and the reminiscences of the people who have lived and worked there, this book tells the fascinating story of the parish, from its origins in the aftermath of the French Revolution with the mission of Fr Jean Baptiste Antoine Gerardot. Woven into its rich history are the threads of Recusancy, of Portuguese, Lithuanian, Italian and Irish influences, of the Great Famine, Immigration, Epidemics, Riots, the Blitz and the baleful impact of the urban planners' post-1945 dreams, the divided loyalties of the parishioners split between supporting Liverpool and Everton football clubs, and even Cilla Black, who attended the parish school.