How John Paul II blazed a trail way back in ’79
JOHN Paul II’s visit in 1979 marked the first trip to Ireland by a Pope, and it was one of the first foreign visits he undertook since his election as Pope.
Some 2.8million people attended events in Dublin, Drogheda, Clonmacnoise, Galway, Knock, Limerick and Maynooth in what was a seminal moment for the country and its citizens.
The national airline Aer Lingus flew John Paul from Rome to Dublin on September 29, on a flight nicknamed ‘St Patrick’.
Upon arrival John Paul II kissed the ground and was greeted by then President Dr Patrick Hillery. Then he became airborne again as a helicopter took him to the Phoenix Park – the first stop on a hectic three-day tour.
There he celebrated Mass for more than one million people – close to a third of the country’s population at that time.
While he had hoped to travel to Armagh, Ireland’s ecclesiastical capital, it was felt crossing the border would be too dangerous due to the ongoing Troubles.
Instead, he said Mass in Drogheda for 300,000 people.
During the Mass he urged those involved in violence to stop. ‘On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the ways of peace. You may claim to seek justice. I too believe in justice and seek justice. But violence only delays the day of justice. Violence destroys the work of justice,’ he said.
The next day, 20,000 people were at the ancient monastic site at Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly, where the Pope stopped en route to Galway where he celebrated a Youth Mass before 300,000 people and delivered, in his distinctive Polish accent, the now-famous phrase: ‘Young people of Ireland, I love you.’
Then the helicopter took him to the Marian shrine in Knock, Co. Mayo, where 450,000 people attended a Mass to commemorate the apparitions of 1879.
On his final day, 80,000 turned out to greet John Paul at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, before he was whisked off for a final Mass for 400,000 in Limerick before jetting out of Shannon Airport.
When Pope Francis arrives here next August 25 it will have been 39 years since a Pope set foot on Irish soil.