Superstar welcome for Pontiff in the park

The Argentine Pontiff Pope Francis starts a two-day tour taking in a global Catholic Congress tonight at Ireland Cork Park’s 80,000-seat Dublin Stadium with an outdoor mass tomorrow at Phoenix Park, that is expected to draw half a million pilgrims. Superstars like Mick Jagger and Taylor Swift performed here in May and June 2018, respectively.

Ireland’s strong Catholic heritage will attract crowds from all over the world for this papal visit.

Francis will meet abuse victims in Dublin, is facing a clamor in Ireland to provide Vatican records on the cover-up to investigators.

Ireland’s singers are out in force for the Pope, as a choir of 3, 000 will sing in the park. A “rainbow choir” of LGBT people were refused a stand at the gathering.

Pope Francis will begin the second day of his historic visit to Ireland at the Knock Marian shrine, County Mayo. On Sunday morning. It is the first papal visit to Ireland in 39 years.

In 1979 Pope John Paul II, who preached at the same spot attracted more than one million.

Phoenix Park is home to the Irish president, a herd of 550 wild fallow deer and the US ambassador. Volunteers from the school of biology at the University of Dublin has been drafted in to help regular keepers protect the animals from the crowds.