Events around Ireland honour new saints

A number of events took place around Ireland yesterday to mark the double canonisation of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.

A crowd of about 3,000 turned out in brilliant sunshine at Ballybrit racecourse in Galway for a thanksgiving Mass 35 years after an estimated 200,000 travelled from all over the country for the Papal Youth Mass celebrated by John Paul II in 1979.

Among them was Deirdre Walsh from Oughterard in Connemara. “I remember when the pope’s helicopter landed at the racecourse. It was magic,” Ms Walsh, who was accompanied by her husband, John, said.

“When I heard they were going to have this Mass, I just knew I had to be here,” she added.

Yesterday’s chief celebrant, Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway, was joined by five other bishops and 30 priests on the same red altar carpet which was used for the 1979 Mass.

A ceremony in Tralee, Co Kerry, saw relics of both the canonised saints installed in the Dominican priory in the town. The Holy Cross Church is believed to be the only church in Ireland and one of only a handful throughout Christendom with relics of both popes and those of Polish saint Sr Faustina, whose relics were also installed yesterday.

Dominican prior Fr Joe Bulman, who presided at the Mass to mark the installation of the relics, said: "As far as I know, we are the only church in Ireland to have all three of them. We had been told it was an absolute impossibility to get all three relics."

Cinema screens
Elsewhere, up to 400 cinema-goers watched a live feed of the canonisations on two cinema screens at Movies@Dundrum, one of which was a 3D screening.

The cinema was one of four in Ireland which screened the Mass using live footage from 13 3D cameras positioned around St Peter’s Square which the Vatican said was to give those who could not attend a “fully immersive” experience.

“The footage was the best live 3D footage I’ve ever seen. The quality was pristine,” George Fields, film and technical manager with Movies@Dundrum, said.