Can anyone tell me if there have ever been any papal visits to Ireland? I know the current pope has been all over the world, but I don't remember hearing about any trips to Ireland. Also, can you tell me if there has ever been an Irish pope? Looking forward to hearing from you.

-- Linda Coleman (lindacoleman@excite.com), October 02, 1999

Answers

Dear Linda, I don't think there was even 1 pope out of 265 that we have had, that was Irish. Ellen

-- Ellen K. Hornby (dkh@canada.com), October 03, 1999.

Linda - The Nuncio to Ireland has had a difficult time with the changing social patterns of Ireland. Once a country strongly Catholic has now voted in abortion which I think was within the last five years.

I may be wrong on this particular issue although we have an old Irish man in our parish who was quite upset at developments. +Peace+

-- jean bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), October 04, 1999.

John Paul II visited Knock, the Marion Shrine in County Mayo, in (I think I'm correct) 1978. It was the first Papal visit to Ireland and a monumental event for Ireland and the Shrine

-- ajgibbons (ajgibb@hotmail.com), January 04, 2001.

Linda, The Pope did visit Ireland in 1978, and I was there. He stopped at Dublin, Galway, Limerick, and Knock. There were 1,000,000 people in the Phoenix Park in Dublin for his mass, which is pretty impressive, given that the population of the country at the time was about 3.5 million. Alas, the number of practicing catholics has dropped off in recent years - but then again, those that are practicing are more fervent I think than in the past, when attending mass and the like was more a habit and a duty rather than a love-affair. Abortion is still illegal in Ireland ( and long may it remain so ) but we do have the sad situation where about 6000 of our girls go across the water to Britian every year for abortions. Tony

-- Anthony smith (mik_kearny@yahoo.com), January 11, 2001.

Hello Linda,

Actually, the visit of John Paul II to Ireland was in 1979, and he visited several cities in the 26 Counties, but none in the 6 Counties of Northern Ireland. A lady from County Wexford that lived in Rome in the 1950's told me that she believed that Pope Pius XII had a little bit of Irish blood. I hope so, since I am an American and am of 75% Irish extraction. I have sought in vain to find any written documentation showing the genealogy of His Holiness to prove that he had at least one Irish ancestor. The information must be out there somewhere though. Let me know if you find anything. Take care and God bless.

Ben

-- Ben Emerson (bemerson88@yahoo.com), January 07, 2003.