| Description | The file contains 3 newspaper clippings about: Fr Blake hosting the North Korean football team at Loyola Hall, Fr Blake leaving Loyola Hall after 25 years and Fr Blake fundraising for Loyola Hall by visiting nightclubs and asking for donations. There is also an audio cassette tape recording of Fr Blake speaking about Loyola Hall.
Part 1 of cassette tape. About the North Korean football team's stay at Loyola Hall, Rainhill, in June 1966. Plays from 0:00 to 17:35.
Fr Blake describes how in 1966 during the World Championship the North Korean team stayed at Loyola Hall. The Italian national team was due to play a match in England against North Korea, and the Italian manager asked Fr Blake if he could accomodate 40 officials and football players. The North Korea team won the match, and Fr Blake received a call from the Football Association asking if he could accommodate the North Korean team who struggled to find a hotel as they wanted full use of the kitchens. Fr Blake accepted to accomodate the team for 6 nights, charging £3 per person per night. They adapted well to life in England, but were reluctant to talk to the English staff and were terrified of going near the chapel. They requested keys and locked the doors from 10 o'clock onwards and every night in all the corridors one man sat with a gun. On the third day a bus of journalists arrived. On the day of the match against Portugal, Fr Blake went with the team to Everton's football ground where they lost 4:3. Before they left one of the officials told Fr Blake that the kindest treatment they received in their whole 3 week stay in England at Loyola Hall, then he presented Fr Blake with a traditional Korean set of ink pots and pens.
Part 2 of casette tape. About Fr Blake's time at Loyola Hall. Plays from 17:35 to 29:52.
Fr Blake describes how in 1946 after being demobbed from the Royal Airforce he arrived in London to see the Provincal, who left a message that he wished Fr Blake to go to Loyola Hall. Fr Blake describes being disappointed, due to its poor condition with unsatisfactory accomodation which mainly consisted of dormitories and cubicles with very few private rooms and only one bathroom. Fr Clifford Howel arrived at Loyola Hall and after touring the buildings together wrote a letter recommending that everything be pulled down to start again. The reply stated that they had to make the best of the circumstances. After six months Fr Howel left and Fr Blake was made Superior and things slowly began to improve although they were in constant debt and short of money. During Fr Blake's time in the R.A.F he'd been involved with the Leadership Courses, and in 1948 his old commander asked the Provincial if they could use Loyola Hall as the centre for the R.A.F leadership courses. The Provincial agreed, and this saved Loyola Hall from financial disaster. They had around eight retreats a year, with fourty to seventy men attending each time. Eventually a new wing and chapel was built to meet demands. Fr Blake reflects on his 24 years at Loyola Hall fondly. |