Pope Francis chose Ireland – now meet the people making his visit happen

THIS week’s visit from the Pope is not a State visit, rather it is centred on the World Meeting of Families, one of a trinity of Vatican-run events which take place regularly, the others being World Youth Day and the Eucharistic Congress.

The World Meeting of Families takes place every three years with the next host city announced at the end of each event. So how was Dublin chosen? Was a multimillion-euro bid put together? Were experts from across a number of fields called in for their input? Not at all. In fact, the answer is much more exciting.

‘It’s absolutely not a bid situation where groups come together to pitch for the event, the Pope personally chooses,’ says WMOF spokeswoman Brenda Drumm. ‘Other cities were in the running but as WMOF 2015 in Philadelphia came to a close, the Pope personally announced Dublin as the 2018 host.

‘People often ask me, “Who invited the Pope?” There’s always an open invitation to the Pope but by choosing Dublin as the host city he effectively invited himself. He also gave us the theme for the entire event – the Joy of Love, taken from his book, Amoris Laetitia, so there’s been a very personal touch.

‘Once the WMOF was confirmed, the Archbishop put in place two contingency plans — plan A which included a visit by Pope Francis and plan B without. Finally, plan A was retained and plan B was put in a filing cabinet somewhere.’

Seven or eight months after the WMOF announcement in 2015, a general manager was appointed followed by the appointment of secretary general for the event, Fr Timothy Bartlett. Preparations began two years ago and the WMOF was officially launched in Knock in August 2017. On March 26, the Pope’s visit was confirmed and the Phoenix Park build began on July 23.

Such is the scale of the €32million visit that an entire management structure has been put in place with representatives from various stakeholders participating — including the Office of Public Works, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Defence, the HSE, the NTA and the relevant local authorities (Dublin City council and Fingal County Council) — with a steering committee overseen by Martin Fraser from the Department of An Taoiseach.

Nine sub groups were then created: medical, health and safety, local authority management, traffic, security and stewarding, media, business and community liaison, catering and logistics.

In 1979, architectural firm Scott Tallon Walker was drafted in to organise, design and construct the entire Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park. This time around, concert promoter MCD — more used to staging shows for the likes of U2 and Beyoncé with crowds of up to 80,000 — has been hired to pull together all activities within the park. John McColgan and Moya Doherty’s Tyrone Productions, famous for Riverdance, has been hired to stage the Festival of Families at Croke Park on Saturday night, featuring Andrea Bocelli, Daniel O’Donnell, Moya Brennan, Riverdance and a host of other acts.

The Croke Park build will start tomorrow and while it’s a functioning venue throughout the year, the biggest logistical challenge will be managing up to 2,000 performers on the night.

Michael Slattery & Associates, the company that worked on fire safety for the 2012 London Olympics, is in charge of safety within the Phoenix Park and has carried out a detailed analysis of crowd movement in the lead-up to the Mass.

By far the biggest challenge on the day will be dealing with half a million people, not as they make their way into the park from 8am but as they try to get home afterwards.

Eamon O’Boyle, who worked on the 1916 Commemoration, has been brought in to look after safety outside all venues involved in the event.

He will be the event controller at Dublin Castle in a control room staffed by up to 50 people from emergency services and State agencies at peak times. Smaller control rooms in Croke Park, the RDS and Phoenix Park will feed into the main hub.

It will operate from 4am on Sunday with CCTV and crowd movement monitored so that emergency services can be dispatched if required. Up to 2,500 gardaí will work on the day of the Mass, 700 of them within the park itself.

Brendan Dowling, chief emergency management officer with the HSE, has been preparing for the event for the last few months.

‘Our role is two-fold: to provide medical support and to ensure that HSE services continue to run seamlessly,’ he says. ‘We can’t shut down hospitals or stop home visits, we have to plan and adapt.’

Around 1,000 medical staff will be on duty across events, most of them from services such as the Red Cross, St John’s Ambulance, Civil Defence and Order of Malta — all organisations working outside the hospital network according to Brendan.

It has been reported that hospitals near the Phoenix Park, such as St James’s, are discharging patients on a planned basis to free up beds in the case of a major emergency. Capacity at an existing mortuary within the park has been extended in the event of any deaths during the Papal Mass.

It has also been reported that an exercise was carried out during which 90 stakeholders discussed possible emergency scenarios and discussed solutions which were then fed into the final plans. In the event of a major emergency, pop-up medical tents will be used.

For the Mass, attendees will be directed to colour-coded corrals, each of which will hold 1,400 people. Timber posts and rope barriers — which are easier to remove and don’t restrict people’s movement in the case of an emergency — will be used throughout.

‘It’s a very different time now to 1979, both in terms of infrastructure and health and safety legislation,’ says Brendan Dowling. ‘It’s a constant moveable feast with changes made on a daily basis.

‘Our aim is to walk away from the event saying, that was great, we did the absolute best we could. It’s a historic event and I’m proud to be involved in it.’

People ask, ‘Who invited the Pope?’ There’s been a very personal touch