We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
LAST UPDATE | 26 Aug 2018
UNDER 130,000 PEOPLE attended the Phoenix Park this afternoon for a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, according to initial estimates.
Around 500,000 tickets for the Mass were made available by organisers in July, but considerably fewer than that showed up for the event, which marked the end of the Catholic Church’s World Meeting of Families.
The event was expected to be one of largest to be organised in Ireland since the last papal visit in 1979, where 2.7 million people turned out to see Pope John Paul II at several locations over three days, including an estimated one million at the Phoenix Park.
Gardaí recording the number of people who entered the park today estimated that less than 130,000 – roughly a quarter of the amount expected - arrived at the site between this morning and the end of this afternoon’s events.
The Garda Press Office has not made any announcements to the media regarding the figure, which is based on information gathered by officers tasked with overseeing the event.
The World Meeting of Families is expected to announce its estimate of the attendance later, a spokesperson said this afternoon. The Government will not be making a comment on the attendance, as the World Meeting took the lead on organising the Mass.
Earlier this month, the HSE warned those with health problems against attending the Mass if they were unable to do so.
Very poor weather in Dublin and across much of the country this morning may also have been a factor in people deciding to stay at home and watch on TV.
A number of tickets were snapped up by protesters when they were made available in July, with some saying they had booked hundreds of tickets without any intention of attending.
Earlier in the day, around 45,000 people turned up to see the pope attend an event at Knock Shrine.
With additional reporting from Daragh Brophy.
“Less than 130,000″ but if 2 or 3,000 turned up for a march on a topic that suits the journal it would be seen as a massive turn out
@Jonathan Whelan: don’t be daft. This event was championed as global and with the whole (hypocritical) WMOF attached . Even tho they despise minority families. Facts are facts not everything is an anti organised religion agenda. Altho that’s not a bad thing at the end of the day really.
@Jonathan Whelan: What’s your point Jonathan?
We had folks on these very forums crowing about 500k plus attending this mass and it been a sign of the strength of the Catholic Church in Ireland, despite all their abhorrent and subhuman behaviour.
That just over 20% of that number showed up is of great significance and further evidence of the huge cultural change this country has undertaken over the last 30+ years.
@Mjhint: It is a significant amount not attending, but I’d say the weather changed a fair amount of minds. The RCC has been in consistent decline over the years and its numbers will never return to those of the past. I found the Popes words surprisingly direct. It’s a start. It will have comforted some, enraged some, and raised questions regarding what happens next. When I see abusers, and those that covered up, facing a court of law I’ll know that his words meant something.
@Jonathan Whelan: You’re right but I will hand it to the journal this time for stating facts rather than others massaging the numbers like RTE and the spindependent
@Jonathan Whelan: 2.5m people attended a Papal event in 1979 which was nearly three quarters of the population at that time.
@Clifford Brennan: if you truly believed that the Pope represented Jesus on Earth a bit of weather would not have turned you off going! It just is a indication of where the Catholic Church is currently!
@Mjhint: each to there own!
@Clifford Brennan: they put rain (in Ireland) ahead of seeing their pope. It never stops them from going to the ploughing yoke or the races in their hoards.
@Mjhint: don’t kid yourself …..live and let live !
@Treabhair Coulahan: why? No proper argument like the other posters, just I am a fool? Bravo
@Mjhint: https://extra.ie/2018/06/04/news/irish-news/ireland-has-third-highest-rate-of-church-goers-in-western-europe/amp m. Hahaha catholic Ireland will never ever die
@James O’Brien: facts ? Take a look at the TV & don’t tell me that there’s 1.5 Croke Parks there….looks an awful lot more ? It’s always the same with gatherings / marches.
I’ll bet that number will be disputed….there’s no way the guards were counting the numbers going in.
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: what does ”minority family” mean?
@MK76: his point is that the journal is a hyper hyporrical liberal eco chamber with a staunch triggered lib following.
@Jonathan Whelan: who didn’t have a proper argument there, would that not be you ?
@Jerriko17: Whatever.
@oppenheimersghost: agnostics. Presbyterians. Gays. Devout muslims. Unmarried mothers and families without a Catholic marriage.
@Clifford Brennan: I agree.
@Mjhint: Dead you say? I went to Mass this morning and it was very much alive for me. But thanks for the fake news none the less.
@Mjhint: Dead you say? I went to Mass this morning and it was very much alive for me. But thanks for the news none the less.
@Keith Murdiff: Ah. Got it. So ignore the facts of what’s happening if they don’t meet your POV/agenda.
Clever stuff.
@Jerriko17: I’ll gladly let people follow this cult once I’m not asked to pay for it which I am & its kept away from my children’s school.
@Jonathan Whelan: so €32,000,000 for 130,000 is a costly mass at €250 a head. Should not have been invited in the first place.
@Jerriko17: the guards and organisers were counting, they had to scan in the tickets so the computer should give an accurate attendance figure one way or the other
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: Are devout Muslims and Presbyterians more tolerant of gays than Catholics are?.Also most of the unmarried mother’s I know are Catholics who make a big deal of Christenings, Communions and Confirmations. I’m not sure your “Catholics against the rest” view of Ireland is entirely accurate.
@Baron Adams TD: it is dead. They can’t even get priests to join anymore. Read the news & the Irish people have brought this event to its ingraciating knees for forgiveness & I’m proud we have. You should listen to the BBC coverage of this event. All it talks about is the response the Irish people have forced on the RCC. It’s over. If you’re a Catholic by all means practice this stuff but remember most Irish people reject the teaching of this religion & the RCC know it.
@Donal: You do realise that western Europe is primarily made up of countries that have largely abandoned organised religion? If Ireland had the third highest global mass attendance then I’d be impressed, but when your up against educated secular states like Sweden and Denmark any mass attendance is high in comparison.
@Kevin McSavage: The very fact that you’ve used the phrase “unmarried mother” shows what a dinosaur you are!
@Jonathan Whelan: Rte says different, over 500,000 people attended
@Keith Murdiff: If you poor unhappy conservatives could only master grammar, spelling and syntax, imagine how many others you could persuade to join your tiny-brained crusades.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: lol
@Donal: good man great source. The daily mail resource offshoot. Extra.ie. like all tabloids they cherry pick pew results. The largest group in Ireland are non practicing Christians not even identified as Catholics but Christian & the largest growing group is non affiliates and atheist. The pew results are available online completed. You are proprobably right it will never die out completely as there’s always enough of self loathing serfs in Ireland to let the cult continue but as a powerful entity its finished thankfully.
@Vocal Outrage: the same garda that charged 10million to police an event they touted to be for 500,000? Wonder will they drop their price of pocket it to ‘Lose’ it again. Mmmm
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: You really are Comical Ali…
@Kevin McSavage: that is because that isnt what my point was. I was answeriing a question in response to the CATHOLIC ideology. I m also not afraid to be a vocal critic of Islam unlike so many. Who said about gays specifically ? You just cherry picked.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: tickets needed to be scanned to get in so there is an official number. 500,000 was the health and safety maximum so there can’t have been more.
@Dave O Keeffe:Dave you must have your ear very low to the ground
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: Comical Ali…. lol
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: RTE – propaganda machine for the church and state…
@Jerriko17: the tickets were scanned going in so the number is exact.
@Mary Lyons: I thought he was representing God?
@Jonathan Whelan: well if nearly 3 million turned out before and 500,000 tickets sold than yes 130,000 is low! Not rocket science your analogy is pointless! Rcc is on the way out and the children can at last sleep easy!!
@Tellhimwhynot: i was there and no tickets scanned…was in navy line and a hell of a lot of people in front of me, no one scanning
@Colm O’Leary: It was in response to the earlier comment. Did you call him a dinosaur too?
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: haha rte said 10 million attended. Rte had a priest commentati. Priests would never lie
@Mjhint: Religion and believe in God is not bad. It’s what people do with it and in it’s name what is sometimes evil.
@Clifford Brennan:
Wishful thinking, but it will never happen,
The Vatican Curia are like a mafia and determined to protect itself and it’s wealth at all costs,
The pope is powerless,
Even if I had true will to implement radical change he’d more than likely end up like Pope John Paul 1,
@Jerriko17: look at the photos. It was designed for 500k attendees. Look st the massive gaps and the squared off areas st the back are almost empty
@David Clarke: Ha. Not very Christian of you. Lay off the Linden Village or you’ll go straight to hell.
Let’s not forget the 100′s of extremely sad individuals who bought up tickets (for free) to prevent those that wanted to attend.
This is the state of he Irish psyche on this this pathetic society of ours. One can’t have an opinion without polorisation. Same with the abortion referendum, one side trying to undermine the other with neither side respecting nthe others point of view or choice. Sad, pathetic country, always has been; no wonder it is in the mess it is.
@Jonathan Whelan:
Expectations of 500,000
@Daveinson: The queen was estimated to benefit Ireland by at least 150million….should the 130, 000 get all the benefits of the popes visit ? You’d be the 1st on here bleating about it if they did. Just shows how ignorant you are…..the Pope decided to have the event here !
@PWD Dublin: is that the official stance of the business?
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: Yes, sure RTE would never lie. Besides, 500,000 was the limit, so OVER 500,000 could not have attended.
@Jonathan Whelan: “FEWER” than 130,000.
@Keith Murdiff: Yet here you are.
@Tellhimwhynot: they were not scanned
@MK76: Indeed – where the killing of our innocent merely changes hands – now that we have abortion coming in, the Tuam legacy continues. Some things do change, but some things don’t – this is unfortunately the case for our babies!
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: had 7 tickets to go, but weather and long walk with young children scupper it. Gutted we missed it but we had no choice,presumably many others in our situation. It was as a protest.
@Vocal Outrage: tickets were not scanned
@MK76: “Young People of Ireland, where are you?”
@Jonathan Whelan:
Grab a hold of yourself, Jonathan.
They expected UP to 600k. They spent public money on this farce and they got less than 1/5th of that expected figure
A march would be a different issue and would be assessed on its own merits
Hopefully it’s a wake-up call to both the church and it’s remaining supporters
@Baron Adams TD:
“Alive for me”
So what?
The news is nothing to do with whether you felt the mass was relevant to you.
@PWD Dublin: you’re an eegit.
130,000 too Many!!
@Lucy : Agreed, after all that has happened… 130,000 people that need to look at themselves in the mirror and question why they still support this organisation.
@Declan O’Neill: Especially the women. I can’t understand women who support RCC. Women are second class citizens in RCC. Always have been and always will. Women had babies taken away from them and sold. It takes a special kind of Stockholm Syndrome to bring your children up to believe in that?
@Lucy : I suppose you could muster a lot more if you called a meeting of whatever you believe in.
@Declan O’Neill: So you expect people to give up their faith in Catholicism due to the actions of a few in the church! That is typical media brainwashed behavior.
@Lucy : to quote Gerry Adams (loosely )….they haven’t gone away, you know !
@Donal: a few ? Do nt be so naive. And they’ve killed thousands between septic tanks and suicides and laundry deaths and.more.
@Donal: no we would expect those who turned up today to at least understand that they are complicit in the covering up & undermining of
The abuse by the RCC which went all the way to the top & for any documents within the church to be released in rerelation to the matter.
@Sean: And what about then men of the family who allowed it happen?
@Gisele Mansfield: do u mean dads of women sent to the laundries ? Horrible. But they did what they did and those alive should take responsibility.
@Lucy : very tolerant of you
@Donal: those who abused children were certainly not “a few,” and those who protected them include two former deceased popes who have been elevated to “sainthood.”
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: id say they were atheist priest. Don’t were in the bible it says abuse children.
@Gisele Mansfield: And which organisation was it that labelled them as ‘fallen women’ and made society as a whole feel that their word was the ONLY option? I know who I’d be pointing the finger at…
@Gisele Mansfield: what about the men whose children were forcibly taken from them because their wives died or left? They had no choice
@Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: I’m not a Roman Catholic but let’s get the facts right…’they’ did not kill anyone!
@Declan O’Neill: Because they have free will and obviously it means something to them I personally exercised my own free will and did not attend because I have no interest.
@Lucy : fair play you came out from behind your keyboard and stood up. The next time the world is in trouble I’ll remember to text you!!
@Lucy : You are in for a shock when you find out there is 1.3 billon worldwide and growing everyday especially in China,
@Declan O’Neill: so because they don’t follow your opinions you want them to look at themselves.
Would you grab a hold of yourself. Opinions are like arseh oles. Everyone has one. Just don’t go shoving it down peoples throat
@Sean: also women had too many children because of the churches stance on contraception
@Sayitlikeitis: no, no, they were catholic
@Lucy : Ordinary People with faith are different to the perpetrators of horrendous crime within the hierarchy. why vent at the innocent ? terrible comment.
@Jun Stone: children malnourished and abused and thrown in septic tanks. Women who died because they were tortured in laundries. Suicide. I think you’ll find the catholic church has led to many deaths.
@Yurthunter171: assumption makes an ass of u and I … I abhor Islam.
@Sean: stockholm syndrome
Sean Spicer just did a headcount and it’s actually 650,000
@Elma Phudd: period.
@Elma Phudd: Classic alternative fact.
@Elma Phudd: BIGGEST TURNOUT EVER LOL
It’s gas that so many are claiming credit for taking tickets & not going while in the same breath ridiculing the numbers. Maybe it would have been more gracious not to have taken the tickets if they weren’t interested. Hovever, 10s of thousands who couldn’t go are watching on TV, including me !.
@Jerriko17: it is so gripping that you are here commenting.
@Jerriko17: Me too and the millions of viewers around the world.
@Daveinson: thank you !
@Jerriko17: is that you turning the other cheek?
@Daveinson: want to be careful turning cheeks with that lot
@Daveinson: i was there..it was great and very well organised…
@Jerriko17: Tickets were still available when people were moaning about people taking tickets with no intention of going. If you’d really wanted to go, you could’ve ordered them in time. All the Joe Duffy moaners could’ve gotten tickets with 5 minutes effort. But no, they preferred the outrage.
@Liamnolan: very roomy with great open spaces.
@Daveinson: didn’t notice you hitting the 1st one !
@Jerriko17: Where do you get the “tens of thousands” figure? Even RTE can’t produce ratings figures this quickly.
@Jerriko17: I attended. Not a fan of RCC. Took my young family. I would say the turn out was 200k plus.
From the outset the mood was shadowed by sexual abuse & whether RCC would do the right thing. They only came close.
Will wait for official numbers & not the biased rag the journal.
Saddened by those who turn their anger on church goers instead of perpetrators.
@Jerriko17: Why are you so proud to admit your indoctrination and delusion?
Proudly got 12 tickets some months ago with the intention of not going anywhere near the place along with thousands of other people. My highlight was our Taoiseach standing up to him. Don’t come back Pope.
@Darren Bates: good for you
@Darren Bates: dont be fooled by that spoofer the church is in decline but the real story in this sorry episode is the failure of the state to protect children
@Darren Bates: That silly and mean-spirited protest will be used to take the sting out of the low turnout.
@Darren Bates: Says a lot more about you than anybody who went today. Amazing how the pendulum swings and the intolerance that the church were guilty of is quickly adopted by those now against the church.
@Darren Bates: pity our leo won’t answer up to a lot. I’d be ashamed to say I was proud of him. Even for a speech/question that was wrote for him and not original
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill:
@Darren Bates: very patriotic of you turning on your own people
@Squiddley Diddley: I got 12 myself and there is nothing silly or mean-spirited about it.
This is an organization whose primary purpose is not just the protection, but the facilitation, of criminals who abuse children and vulnerable women. Any action that undermines them should be seen as a moral obligation by good people – this one of those “all that evil needs” things.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: Leo should also practice what he preached and start helping IRISH homeless…he is only an attention seeker
@David McNerney:
The people you deprived of tickets are good people
@James Davis: intolerant church now seeks tolerance. Funny.
@David McNerney: But it’s not their primary purpose at all. The horrible behaviour by the priests within the church was entirely contrary to the doctrine of the church. Those attending today obviously believe in the good of the messsge that the church preaches. Doesn’t mean that they don’t also find the abuse abhorrent. Didn’t attend myself and have no interest but the self-congratulatory posts of people who booked tickets but didn’t go is embarrassing. You’d swear they were kneeling in front of tanks in Tiananmem Square
@David McNerney: You could have been one of the righteous mob who drove women into the institutions by ‘moral obligation’ had you been born in an earlier time. Mob mentality and righteousness never produce positive results.
@Aine O Connor: how do you know that?
@Darren Bates: but if you had to pay 50 euro a ticket, you wouldn’t have done it.
@Darren Bates:
If Leo Varadkar in his Copeland suit was the highlight of your day , you need to get out more! Lol
@Darren Bates:
If the highlight of your day was Watery Leo “standing up” to the Pope , you need to get out more!
Meanwhile Francis is quaking in his boots at Leo ! Lol Tks for the laugh!!!
@Darren Bates: well done, well done you and similar ‘protestors’. You successfully inflated the number and cost the country 32million because preparations had to be made for 500,000 people. Thank you so much for causing that. Thank you so much for closing the city. Thank you so much for making getting to work this weekend. Thank you. Well done what a way to help the people living in this country.
@Lisa Byrne: if people had to pay €50 a ticket they wouldn’t have sold out.
@Darren Bates: fool
@Darren Bates: masterbates
@Darren Bates: you must be so proud of your sad little life to post that…
@Darren Bates: You and the others that got tickets with no intention of going are true warriors. To deprive the old, sick and dying a chance to attend the ceremony. Brave one and all.
@Darren Bates: maybe Leo could have a look at the governments that turned a blind eye to all the going ons. Just as guilty in my eyes
@Darren Bates: my elderly mother was in tears yesterday because she couldnt get tickets for Croke park. This is a woman who has worked all her life working with those less fortunate than her. She has like any good person been horrified and upset by the scandals as she has a belief in goodness and god. I have many issues with the Catholic church myself. But what you have done is not a protest, what you have done is picked on the vulnerable in society and your petty mindedness has hurt people I love. How dare you.
@Darren Bates: I met a heartbroken couple in town yesterday who couldn’t get the tickets. Your protest is someone else’s heartbreak. Just saying
@BobbyLand: I hope their faith prompted them to show up anyway, lots of room and no doubt more were left in
@Dave O Keeffe: I am not sure if they would be let in without the ticket. My neighbour planned on going but having small kids she decided not to due to weather forecast. She said she would bring her tickets to the parish office.
@Darren Bates: so you stopped people from going that really wanted to attend, I’ve no time for any religion but you really are childish.
@Shinner Edel Mary Patricia Ni Chonarain:
Ah I love it!
Great comment Shinner.
@Pinkady: sure who doesn’t love a bit of it.
@all is rotten: the church prevented many of the cases getting that far. Don’t be so naive.
@Kate Bandia: what are you on about ? The roads were going to be closed whether we liked it or not. Unfortunately, we had no say it how ourtax money way spent
@David Clarke: you really need to chill
@Darren Bates: you weren’t missed
@Kate Bandia: you are wasting your time, he’s obviously not the brightest star in the firmament.
Considering that there is about a million more people in the Republic than in 1979, the large amount of Catholic population up north within an hour’s drive and the amount of Polish\Latino’s in the crowd, it really is an abysmal turnout!
@Niall O’Neill: pity the census doesnt ask if you are a lapsed or cultural catholic, we would see some very interesting results
@Ian McNally: Or a Catholic only because it’s s requirement to get your kids into a local school.
@Ian McNally: well you actually can calculate it because you would be able to follow up from census to census their religious information changing over time.
@Ian McNally: well there is a box to fill in the ‘other’ section… But as it stands bow the catholic box should be at the bottom of the list. I heard the second highest religion in terms of numbers is Jedi… To be honest that sounds very bigly cool. Who wouldn’t want magical powers and a light sabre?
@Sean: Action needed from Govt on the retrieving of schools and there’s no point in berating the Roman Church about inaction if our political leaders only pay lip service themselves
@Mickelodian Ranks: As I recall under the religion option (which follows immediately from a racial origin question, implying it’s recording your background) there are several options beginning with Roman Catholic and below the other religions is the ‘Other’ option followed by a two-line text box (I think) and below all that a box to tick for ‘none’. Talk about trying to skew the results! On any other poll or survey, e.g. what pet do you have? The ‘none’ option would be first.
@Sean:
In which case stop being a hypocrite and sending them to Catholic schools.
So many pretentious wannabees in this country pretending to be RC instead of having the balls to send them to atheist schools!
@Pinkady: none nearby I’m afraid. It would take me a lot longer in the mornings to drive them to atheist schools. If there was one a bit nearer I’d definitely consider it.
@Pinkady: tax payers fund those schools why shouldn’t he send his children to them again?
@Sean: guys please resign from the catholic faith your pulling the rest of us down
@Sean: guys please resign from the catholic faith your pulling the rest of us down
@Lazz Tonge: it’s impossible to do so
@Pinkady: easy for you to say. Sometimes there is no other choice
@Niall O’Neill: HSE setting up a temporary morgue, advising people with health issues not to attend, awful weather, muppets grabbing tickets they had no intention of using purely to stop others attending. Lower than anticipated attendance is hardly a surprise.
@Pinkady: problem is there aren’t very many non religious run schools so many people don’t have any other options. Supply does not meet demand.
The journal messing about again. That picture is before the mass. Any pictures of during the mass?
@Paul Furey: they didnt count the number of people in the picture….. 130k is the number who turnes up
@Paul Furey: just seen a few aerials during and near the end. The numbers are low alright . Thankfully
@Beabad Bishop: you seem to be following a lot of the pope. Look up accredited sites now, over 500,000 people attended. RTE also said it live on tv
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: rte said it so it must be true. Sweet suffering jesus
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: they are the same who laugh when trump calls out fake news ps I don’t e
@David Clarke: even go to mass
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: 130,000 is the official Gardaí released numbers, go check. As they are the ones who actually let people in and out, pretty sure they have the right figures. But hey keep day dreaming.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: Ali, only 500,000 tickets were issued. How could more than that be in attendance? Hahahahaha Stop being so utterly deluded lmfao
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: I was watching the end of RTE news and the reporter said it looked like a lot less had turned up. A lot of the corrals were empty from the aerial views. Also a lot of empty seats in Croke park last nite.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: RTE have revised their figure to between 100,000 and 30,000.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: you know that’s not true
@Concúbháir Coruja O Nuamain: Yes the same gardi who said there were only 25,000 at the biggest water March when there was over 100,000.
Could have done two more dates in Croke Park and saved all the hassle of closing the city down. A 3 o’clock and a 5 o’clock mass would have done it.
@Paul Harvey:
@Paul Harvey:
@Paul Harvey: Is there anything to be said for saying another mass?
@Brian Cunningham: ol franer gives good mass
Ireland has changed, and it needed 350,000 people to NOT turn up to convince some people of that!
Pope Francis will always be welcomed in Ireland.
@Maid Marian: by 10% of the population
Tolerance is alive and well on the journal….those of faith should be tolerated not abused….thin edge of the wedge that some rant about here!
@Brian McConnell: abused is an interesting choice of word.
@David Repealion: Catholics are so used to being to dominant majority that they perceive anything thats not abject prise as an attack.
@Kevin Carter: Exactly this. They’ve got to the point where they see being treated equal as an attack. Martyr complex. We won’t allow them abuse us anymore so they are somehow the victim!
@Brian McConnell: Yawn.
What a dangerous group of fanatics here pointing at another group that they call fanatics….comedy stuff really
@Brian McConnell: Best and most accurate comment here Brian. well said!
@Martin: I’m perfectly comfortable with my anti-peadophilia fanaticism.
@Joey Navinski: does that carry across to youth groups, sporting bodies and other refuges of paedophiles or is it purely limited to a specific haven?
Good. The slow demise of a toxic religion with a dying generation. Hopefully next time a pope thinks of coming there’s literally no audience to greet him.
@Sean Murphy: at least it won’t cost us 30 plus millions.
@Sean Murphy: sorry mate I’m 25 and I’d die for my faith.
@Sean Murphy: sorry mate I’m 25 and I’d die for my faith.
@Lazz Tonge: so what ?
@Lazz Tonge: seriously, why?
@Lazz Tonge: Yawn.
@Lazz Tonge: Prove it
Hey it’s still a national record for the largest number of sheep in one place this century so at least they can be proud of that…
@John Ryan: says the sheep using twitter
@Sayitlikeitis: which platform are you using again?
@John Ryan: or the journal.ie app.. numbnuts
A lot of people are seemingly unable to separate the faith from the organisation. If you belief in God and your religion brings you solace, it does not mean you condone the abuses of the church. Like if you like football and enjoyed the World Cup, it doesn’t mean you support the corruption of FIFA.
@Shaner Mac: When you throw your money into a plate every Sunday you financially support an organisation that refuses to accept responsibility for the rape and buggery of children on a worldwide scale, don’t compare that to a football organisation that has problems with bribery…..not even as an example, there’s no excuse so don’t even try to make one.
What time was the photo taken at (1pm) because on the tv it looks a lot closer too 300,000 (5pm)
@Pat Aherne: the Garda estimate is based on counts at entrances to the park, not photos. However there are wide aerial shots from 5 mins before the mass that show pretty sparse numbers relative to the area reserved. Low angle, closer photos can be misleading.
@Pat Aherne: you must be watching a different show than me very poor crowds
@Pat Aherne: did you take lessons from Spicer and Trump on how to count crowds?
@Pat Aherne: No it doesn’t.
@gofreak: garda used to do head counts for protests in o Connell.st and it’s common knowledge how they deliberately under estimated numbers
@gofreak: “a Garda spokesman said the force no longer gives estimates on crowd numbers.”
Hopefully now the country can move forward and prise the cold dead fingers of the church off, for a start, our education system.
@Pharmyco: if it wasn’t for the Church we wouldn’t have had much of an education system to start with.
@Pharmyco: The current church would love to move away from the Irish education system. Schools all over the country are now run by trusts rather than local churches. But the Govt doesn’t want to take on the cost of taking over.
@Noel O’Gorman: Might have had something better, and maybe a system that didn’t abuse kids
@Noel O’Gorman: It wasn’t education, it was indoctrination.
So many sad and bitter people in this country.
@Maid Marian: or so many people that don’t agree with child trafficking or tossing babies into sewer tanks.
@James Kelly: No James. Plenty of comments here mocking people for having fatih. It paints a picture of a very intolerant liberal society.
@Philip Kavanagh: “intolerant liberal society” come again?
@Philip Kavanagh: are you tolerant of abuse of children ?
@Maid Marian: Yes you are right. People are bitter after the political system that allowed the banks and big business to economically bankrupt the country. Added to that the criminal actions of Church and State, which nobody was ever held accountable for. Scandal after Scandal and more to come have made people bitter. The head of an Independent state and leader of the Church involved by his visit has shown that the vast majority of Irish people no longer accept the crimes committed by anointed members of that Church, or their interference in political matters. The hold the Church had since the foundation of this state , held it in a conservative dark age. Granted it suited certain political parties also. Hopefully that conservatism will be a thing of the past sooner rather than later.
@Maid Marian: So many sad, delusional Catholics living a pipe dream.
@Philip Kavanagh: No, it paints a picture of realism and people being fed up with the indoctrination and corruption that is the Catholic Church.
@James Kelly It wasn’t child trafficking – it was adoption. The children were placed with families which were as good as could be assured at the time. There has’nt been any flood of complaints from the the children. It was tough on the mothers, but life was tough for everyone back then. It enabled the mothers to go back get married and have other children. Not the standards of now, but at the same time the British government was sending children to Australia and Canada. it was the practice of the time.
As for Tuam mother and baby home. Child mortality before vaccination and antibiotics was 17%. In orphanages it was more
because there was more exposure. Children in orphanages were there because their families did’nt or could’nt take them. that’s why orphanages existed in the first place. You and your likes have no idea of what poverty in Ireland was like.
What’s going on now is attacking the people who were engaged in trying to deal with it. It would make as much sense to attack Trocaire and Oxfam for famine in Africa.
As for the use of a disused sewerage tank as a tomb – there are aspects to that, other than the idea that they were treated as sewerage. .
There were were no burial places other than family plots in existing cemeteries. In parish cemeteries, the regular practice was to exhume the previous burial for each new burial. Only the wealthy families had tombs.
I’ve seen nothing to indicate that this disused tank contained sewerage sludge or that it was’nt cleaned out and re-cycled as a tomb. What’s missing is the identification of that structure as a burial place. The fact that these children died was not a secret – the death certs were there in the public records. There are literally millions of unmarked burials in churchyards, overgrown cemeteries and the back yards of workhouses – every one of them of a poor person. Are we to spend millions to enhance the reputation of a fake historian – while thousands are homeless.
@Michael farrelly: Get real. There is more happening now than ever. Girls are dress like prostitutes and boys are addicted to porn.
If only we could get an unbiased commentary from RTE rather than then being a propaganda machine with TV licence payers money
A lot of people experience great pride and comfort by being members of the Church. These were the people that were present at the functions over the weekend. They enjoyed it and felt good being a part of it. Others people chose not to attend, some through protest others because they had no interest in doing so. There really is no right or wrong in this, just different opinions.
@Philip Duffy: No, Mr Duffy, you are wrong.
I’m here now. Looks like a lot of people here but no one was counting or checked tickets at all. I came in the purple/yellow route.
There can’t be an accurate count.
@Reuben Gray: Gardai were.counting and said it was 130,000. Dreadful turnout, basically only 1.5% of the islands population showed up. There are over 50 Dublin Buses sitting empty on my road and they’ve no passengers to take, the whole thing was a massive waste of taxpayers money
@Reuben Gray: These things are usually done with pressure pads at entry points rather than direct head counts nowadays. They tend to be extremely accurate.
@all is rotten: what were the road closures like in 1979? I heard people this week saying they weren’t going this year because of how inaccessible it was then. They took a look at the map and saw that it was pretty much the same
Those that made the effort to get to the park are people who get great comfort and pride from being members of the Church. I’m sure they enjoyed their day and felt part of a great occasion. To them, that’s all that matters.
@Philip Duffy: people who get great comfort and pride from abusers in gowns who give out haunted bread and believe in the invisible Man need to get a life
@Philip Duffy: If you get comfort or take pride from an organization like the Catholic Church you should really reevaluate who you are as a person…
@Philip Duffy: you didn’t read my post.
Looks more like 70 to 80k from everyone of the aerial shots. I mean Croke park will have more people next Sunday than you can see in that picture above.
@JustOneScoop: over 500,000 people attended, Rte also stated that at the end of the mass. Other papers also state it
Comical Ali…. lol
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: seems like you’re trying to convince yourself of those numbers at this stage. Watching RTE news right now and they said 10s of thousands. It’s quite clear from the aerial photos that there was nowhere near the numbers you are stating there.
@JustOneScoop: There’s 350000 at the back.. trying to hide behind each other and planning where to go for the afternoon session. The odd silent but deadly fart.. Also being at the back they can leave before communion and beat the rush home.
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: im botj respect & am aware how big that site is.but I think 130,000 is being generous.maybe 100/115,000 max
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: can’t have been over 500,000 as there were only 500,000 allowed for health and safety reasons. You are bearing false witness
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: I bet you believe in Father Christmas
Personally watched on TV great event . I would be anti church but I think the Pope did great job and has changed my mind about him as top dog in office.
@JesusMoreBullshit: epic trolling.
A lot of people are pointing the finger at Frank. the rot set in a long time before him. This must be a lesson to us all. Organised religion of any hue needs to be carefully examined before the state writes it into the constitution. For too long we as a nation held onto a religion like a child clinging to it’s mother, afraid to let go. We allowed the church to control us and like any power hungry organisation it abused that power. The penny seems to finally dropped. Keep religion out of the classroom and leave it at home. If people need to seek solace in religion, they should be allowed to do so privately. But they should be allowed to practice in peace not mercilessly mocked like some of the above abusive commentators. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone etc.
Leaving the pope and religion out of it what this number tells us is how f—-ed up Ireland has become with health & safety since 1979 the distance elderly people were asked to walk for this event was crazy .
Ed Sheeran got 150,000 at the Pheonix Park…nuff said.
@Kerry Mink: 60,000 each nite.180,000 payed customer.different site also
Hahahaha 130,000
@Kev O’Donoghue: add the people on the streets and Croke Park, quite large.
@Sayitlikeitis: the article isn’t about Croke Park attendance or stragglers on the street. Why the fk are you so desperate? Lol abysmal turnout given the fact there was half a million tickets issued for the Phoenix Park lmfao.
@Sayitlikeitis: that would involve counting many people twice of course
Apparently a few hundred turned up at the garden to hear Mr Bitter O’Gorman. Still with a major chip on his shoulder in spite of his 6 figure salary. Total hypocrisy.
Elsewhere big crowds and Croke Park last night seemed to be a great showcase for Ireland. Well done to RTÉ, the organizers and Croke Park.
@Tim Quigley: what does his salary got to do with showing solidarity to abuse survivors? Stand4truth showed more compassion than the church ever could, that’s the ireland I’m proud to be apart of.
@Tim Quigley: Bahahaha 500,000 free tickets issued, 130,000 turn up. Even when it’s free, people stayed away. The sweet decline of the morally bankrupt RCC is delightful to see. What a catastrophic waste of my hard earned taxes.
@Tim Quigley: There was at least 5,000 at the Stand4Truth event. I’m not surprised that you find it funny that Colm O’Gorman was raped by one of your priests for 2 and a half years as a child.
@Ian Walsh: stick with the looney left. They’ll save Ireland
@Gaius Gracchus: 5000, judging by your method of counting so there must have been 800, 000 in Phoenix Park. Hope you enjoyed the day out.
@Tim Quigley: could you blame him for being bitter? How would you feel if you had been abused by members of the church. Pretty sure your salary wouldn’t change your feelings. The man tries to highlight the crimes of the church and get them to be held accountable for those crimes. You seem to have a problem with that, why is that?
@Tim Quigley: are you honestly laughing and poking fun at a man who was raped and abused by RC priests??? A man who has been brave enough to speak out about what happened to him and has made positive efforts to help others that it has happened to?
Frankly, you are sick!!!
@Tim Quigley: That’s not a very Christian thing to say about an abuse survivor!
As for how many attended, people are entitled to their faith. many Catholics may be conflicted,they might have a deep belief in God but faith in the Church has been damaged in the lack of complete effective response to widespread history of child abuse and mistreatment of women that we hear about,not just in Ireland.
Child abuse is a crime and there should be consequences for that ,etc and for any cover ups!This is not behaviour that God would tolerate in His Church so it’s up to a Pope to once and for all to have a zero tolerance of that behaviour,release all files to police and prosecute those( who acted against God’s teachings and )committed criminal acts!You can’t have a deep faith in God whilst making excuses for a Church that still hasn’t fully admitted responsibility for past crimes and taken full and complete actions to ensure justice for survivors of abuse.This is the 21st century and survivors will waiting for justice& there are no excuses for that!
@Tim Quigley: I did Tim, it was the least I could do to remember the victims of the Catholic Church. Hope you enjoyed their celebration in the Phoenix Park.
@Tim Quigley: Because the right wing neoliberal policies of FG and FF have served us so well. Hahahaha You folk have absolutely no shame whatsoever.
@Tim Quigley: What makes him a hypocrite? His current salary has absolutely nothing to do with the abuse he suffered and the campaign he has launched to get the information on his, and many other cases, released by the church authorities. Your statement is one of the most un-christian pieces of garbage I’ve seen on here. You claim to be a Catholic and a supporter of the church and you behave in such a vile manner towards another human. You seriously need to have a long, hard look at yourself and reflect on your attitude to others. Back you go to the chapel and crawl on your knees to the altar glorying in your evil abuse. You describe someone earning a high salary as hypocritical??? I suggest you go and look for two things, 1. the dictionary definition of a hypocrite and 2. A mirror !!
group of fanatics here pointing at another group that they call fanatics….comedy stuff really
@Brian McConnell: except one group doesn’t believe in invisible people judging them in the sky
@tweetforjunk: maybe not but they will still do communion and confirmation
@tweetforjunk: yes they do.
@shanekeogh: Yeah of course priming a kid to do confirmation and communion is saying to them “would you like some free money to buy a new Xbox!” And the answer to that is yes. Cos to a kid this is what its about…a day out and money.
30 years later not one of them will know what its supposed to be for, but they will all remember how much money they got and what they spent it on.
@tweetforjunk: which group believes in invisible people in the sky judging them ??…..displaying your total ignorance. …methinks ?
@Brian McConnell: The eternally outraged need something to be outraged about
@Mickelodian Ranks: and many of these protesters will still do Christmas, their kids will sit in school learning all about Jesus and do a Christmas play, they bring along grannies and grandads to watch little Johnny on the stage, but protest where it all comes from ha
@shanekeogh: Jesus didn’t come from the pope
@Brian McConnell: Yawn
Just *5%* of the 1979 numbers, with a population that’s almost 25% larger and a Pope that seems at least a halfway decent fella… Didn’t expect that, even after the last two referendums. I do feel sorry for the older folk that were put off by the trek on foot and the weather, but at the same time I can’t help but be excited that secularism has finally arrived.
So est 210000 people came to see the pope between Croke Park, City Parade & Phoenix Park cost €32m works out about €150 per person
@Cormac McKay Dublin: you’re definitely counting some people twice
@Cormac McKay Dublin: 32M was allocated for support staff and security ect to cater for 500,000 people . People ‘protesting’ by taking upwards of 12 tickets each with no intention of going and depriving others cost the taxpayer millions as preperations had to be pre-made for half a million people
Basically the same turnout as the bloom event in June + a few thousand.
http://bloominthepark.com/news/record-numbers/
It’s over. Can we not have this same inappropriate deference with overblown event and security arrangements next time, if there is a next time? There are still road closures around the city center for no apparent reason. Gardai and public transport standing around idle. Ridiculous waste.
Typical journal anti family and anti Christian agenda yet again on display, the journal is a commie outfit, the papal visit doesn’t suit your Marxist narrative.
@Paddy Pravda: hahahaha maybe the journo is just anti rape, anti abuse, anti slavery etc etc..not like the RCC
@Paddy Pravda: papal visit doesn’t suit any logical thinking people who abhor pedophiles and child trafficking.
@James Kelly: Ageed
@James Kelly: totally agree with you. I was one of those “trafficked”
@Paddy Pravda: Yawn.
Your article is incorrect – I go to all ireland finals – this was much much bigger – it took ages to get out – I would say 300,000
@Tom smith: Crome Park is smaller, not far away.
He could at least have apologised
@Stevie Doran: he did and he has many times over the weekend
@eric nelligan: asking for forgiveness is not an apology
Seems the Pope isn’t worth getting wet over.
It seemed to me that the majority of the crowd were women? From what I could see anyway. I’m very surprised by that.
@Darren McCormack: that’s replicated every Sunday at the Mass
@Mick Barnier: Wow. That shocks me.
@Darren McCormack: Stockholm syndrome
Robbie Williams concert in Phoenix park . 120000 punters
hot chilli peppers. concert in Phoenix park 120000. punters
@Tony Maher: Robbie Williams 135k biggest one off gig ever in ire.rhgp 85k same site both gigs.ashtown.point is they were paying customers.today was free.
@Tony Maher: and your point
RTEs coverage of the event with their camera angles seem to give an impression of a bigger crowd
I assume the order of malta were busy treating people for loneliness.
Sky calling the attendance at 130,000…
@John Ryan: in the U.K.?!!
I was there- I also go through all ireland finals – there was a lot of people I would sa about 350,000
@Tom smith: Jaysus Tom you jumped 50,000 people in 4mins there, are you sure you’re that good a judge?
The best response that Ireland could give to the pope, the numbers spoke volumes and the Catholic hierarchy here must know the game is up.
Terminal decline here and Europe and the US unless major reforms undertaken, and all those who engaged in heinous crimes are prosecuted.
@DJ François: growing massively in southern Africa and Asia. Also the places with the highest birth rates.
I don’t know why everyone in down on The Catholic Church which did and still does a lot of fantastic work in Ireland
@Peter Byrne: Really? You can’t possibly think why someone would be down on them??
@Peter Byrne: The hilarious thing about your comment is I believe you’re actually being genuine.
All I can do is laugh at the church after how badly they misjudged the turnout! Scarlet for them :’)
Thank you Fr Ted for teaching us to just laugh at them.
Careful now.
Great news. I’d well imagine the vast majority was made up of people from the over60′s and foreigners. It’s not long now before this scam is dead and buried in this country. It’s unbelievable how anyone can believe in this rubbish without been given one single iota of evidence, ever. They’re told “happy are those who have not seen and yet believe”. In other words the suckers among us.
Half a million tickets……one hundred and thirty thousand turn up ……….ha ha ha ha ha…
€32,000,000 for that?
About bloody people woke up to the RC Church- it was never a friend of Ireland’s – from the suppression of the Celtic Church to Pope Adrian’s forged document approving England’s annexation of Ireland they have done us over time and time again – not to mention the more recent abuse of women and children and so forth!
I was shocked they shifted 500,000 tickets even though they we’re free.but 130,000 that’s very low.that eiral view is embarrassing.u2 would have sold it out
Hilarious reading all the anti-church fascists who support free speech and expression as long as it aligns to their bias. Pope Francis is a great man.
@Paul Whitehead: Yawn.
That photo is completely misleading. Compare it to the RTÉ photo. I did. The RTÉ photo shows a truer picture of the attendance. I was there. The auto counting gantry couldn’t have captured us properly the way we were walking in, and the crowd was still building up to 3pm. We’ve always been a nation of last minute Massgoers! Tickets were not scanned or checked in any way so anyone could have come. Reckon a few hundred thousand there. Hordes leaving just like 1979.
@Pat Kelly: Lying is a sin
Yes a low turnout ok and deservedly so. But for some reason the roads very empty at the time of the main event. Lots I’d say watching at home instead of attending the park an that includes all those who supposedly are now disassociated from the church. It’ll be interesting to see tv viewing figures when they out
That’s a bit feeble. in’t it? We lack the indomitable spirit of ’79!
@Stephen: we lack the ignorance of church crimes against humanity like we had in 79
@Stephen: we lack the unquestioning religiosity and ignorance
A lot to do with the organisation of it all. No need to make elderly and frail people walk 5 miles when they get off the bus.
@Tony O Neill: they did the same in ’79
More people have now viewed this story than attended the park
@Dave O Keeffe: But that’s a choice, that’s not pretending to be some sort of do gooder protester booking free tickets so that others can’t go.
Basically the same turn out as at Bloom in June + a few extra thousand.
http://bloominthepark.com/news/record-numbers/
Most of the people need a church to feel OK. And this is a fact all around the world. Today few people attending this mass is not a disaster but a clear message :change or die! If this Pope doesn’t understand that and does not change the church he will be acutely remembered as the one who failed the faithfulls, the victims, the poors and the disableds! Time for the words is over. Now is the time for action! And I am not Christian at all!!!
Everyone relax their is 1.3 billion Catholics in the world and growing at an exponential rate, so have a glass of wine or whatever your tipple is and cool the jets.
latest figure. 122000. i am still surprised that so many women turned up.
Utterly FAKE news. The Journal has shot itself in the foot big time. We are not fools. We saw for ourselves what the real numbers were. Closer to 500,000. Please respect the public, your news customers, we don’t like being lied to.
@Mel Cormican: “We are not fools. ”
The irony
Photo compared to RTÉ begs question as to what we can trust from The Journal stable of media. Case made for public service broadcasting.
so much for 500,000 going to the “great”event…there should be 130,000 people looking at themselves in the mirror to night asking themselves..i wonder will there be a child to-night molested by a priest?…definition of human= dumbest animal on the planet
“Very poor weather in Dublin”: that’s just plain incorrect. I cycled into town at 1 and stayed in there til 4 outside the whole time and then cycled home. Got drizzled on for a 5-10 minute strecth at one stage.
Some people took my ticket who had no intention of going.
The Independent declared the turnout to be “in the several hundreds of thousands”‘
I kid you not.
@John Abelardo: Rte said tens of thousands.
@John Abelardo: we are talking about the indo john!
So it’s official. Bono’s bigger than the Pope
I had tickets for myself and family, but the timetable was crazy. An hour walk to entrance, an hour queue to get in, another hour to get to position, two hours for the Pope and two more hours back to city centre. 7 hours – Mad. I don’t blame people for deciding they could watch it on TV. Croke park on Sat evening was very good. Entertainment, family stories and finally the Pope’s address. All the tickets were allocated to attendees of WMF or via parishes. Nevertheless a lot of space left., particularly on the top deck.
I had a tough enough time in primary and boarding school, I was groped by a priest and told to shut up about it, but I don’t make a career out of it. Thanks be to God it’s over. I could’nt stand any more whinging and whining.
It’s wonderful how much our country has changed in such a short space of time!
A million per hour for absolutely nowt
‘A significant number snapped up tickets without any intention of turning up’ That’s quite a generalisation. Close off the city with blockades, wear identification bracelets, limit a person’s access to normal daily life – four person’s if you live in the city centre. Sounds very much like a WW2 facist occupied country.
@Fred Conlan: That has to win a prize for the most ridiculous use of the word “fascist”. And you are beating off some serious completion there, let me tell you.
@Dave Slater: So say a prayer for me Dave.
@Fred Conlan: No, I’ll send you a dictionary.
@Dave Slater: I think you need the dictionary there buddy with your spelling.
The less than optimum attendance, whatever the causes (poor weather, Say No to the Pope or just apathy) is a true reflection how Holy Mother Church can no longer click her fingers and people obey. It reflects the trends expressed in recent referenda that the people of Ireland are growing up in their relationship with the Church and I for one am proud.
I shared McAleese’s concern that this would be a expression of good aul triumphalism.. but as such it failed abysmally… the populist event in Phoenix Park, which needed the masses enduring significant hardships, was a total flop…
Of course because RTE had so much ‘skin in the game’ it failed to report with any honesty the vacant spaces in the Park but even their most generous estimation was only 60% of the total tickets distributed.
Sorry to disappoint the begrudgers but having walked through an extensive area of the Papal audience today in the Pheonix Park there was a very sizable number of young people attending and they were not there just to hear Daniel. The real blame for the lower attendance rests the National Transport Authority. They for some reason or other forced intending attendees to walk too far to the venue and put many people off from attending. Hats off to the many volunteers and Irish Rail. Well done.
@Irish big fellow: I will unpack reality for you. Last census, there were c702,000 people aged 13-24, so 15-26 now. You claim ‘a very sizable number of young people attending and they were not there just to hear Daniel’. If we take it that half of all todays’ audience of 130,000 (i.e. 65,000) are in this 15-26 band, that is around 9% of the 15-26 population. Of course, in reality, there were not even close to 65,000 in the 15-26 band attending today so your triumphalism may be a little premature.
Hahahaha 130,000
So the céad míle fáilte has turned into a céad míle feck off. But if you think the church is dead in Ireland you don’t go to church, you can barely get a seat. Yes the priests are dying and the need to ordain married men is obvious. The pope has very publicly recognised the abuse & apologised, short of the Vatican covered it up yes but it’s substantial & symbolic. I hope abuse victims find some sense of solace
The guards were counting the ppl on the way in eh. Well given their penchant for over estimating anything would say the real figure is in the tens of millions
@Benny Dowling: surely by your logic if they over estimate everything then it would actually be less than 130,000
There was more for the Red Hot Chile Peppers years back
The sexual abuse, the cover-ups, their treatment of women and LGBT communities etc. seems to have turned a lot of people away today. Why can’t people just see past all that stuff!!
Was the Gardai using the same machine to count the attendance as they used to count the Breathalizer tests
To be fair, Ireland was an economic basket case 100 years ago, worst slums in Europe. Most were poor and poorly educated. There was no social welfare and I believe the church helped educate and feed a lot of people. The Catholic religion I think has also contributed positively to the culture of this country, which is appreciated for having friendly, kind, empathetic people. So that shouldn’t be forgotten either. At the same time, this cult should now be disbanded, money distributed to the poor and the ones that raped people should be repeatedly violated themselves by large implements.
I guess the ” bouncy castle” Catholics stayed in bed
Every single person that turned up to this should take a long hard look at themselves as by their attendance they ok’d the abuse and child trafficking of the Catholic Church. If you have a faith and belief then that is good for you and you should practice that in the way you live your life but not by giving credibility to this organisation.
I was there, had to be more than 500,000 there, typical biased bull, from this joke of a newspaper.
@Lazz Tonge: Can’t handle the facts hahaha There were 500,000 tickets issued. Gate stubs show less than 130,000. Boo hoo hoo :)
@Ian Walsh: Right but no tickets were checked on the purple or yellow route at the least. I was never asked to produce tickets. No one was counting either. Perhaps 130,000 came in the main entrance at Parkgate street but there were thousands on the yellow and purple route that never had to produce a ticket to anyone. They either lived in D15 or got the train at Ashtown.
@Reuben Gray: Oh and I’m not Catholic or religious but my wife is so I was there for her. Probably wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t live across the road from the park in D15.
This is encouraging. Watching the coverage it appeared the crowd consisted mainly of slack jawed yokels and auld dears. A percentage would have been children who have not themselves made the choice to be there. While his holiness may have been sincere in his words, the catholic church is a morally bankrupt and immensely corrupt organisation who hold the worst human rights record in history and it’s either naivety/ and or wishful thinking to believe that there’s change on the horizon. These people have been a cancer to Irish and international society for their entire existence and I can only hope that this signals the beginning of the end for a sick cult all in the name of worshipping a fictional character
@Daithi O Cuinnegain:
Don’t hold back there Daithi…..
@Kevin: I did a bit actually. When it comes to the catholic church and organised religion I’ve got endless vitriol to spew but I don’t think anything I said was untrue
There was more at the homecoming for the Limerick hurlers.
Should have headlined with Bono to get a crowd in…..
Why did the TFI exclude Wheel Chair Taxis and Taxis as a mode to get people with mobility issues to the event alot of people denied a once in a lifetime oppurtunity .
Another issue for those using Mobility devices no where to get a boost charge and a fear of being left stranded did not help people to fullfill their wishes and attend
So… Less than 3% well worth the €32M
It looks like the “say nope to the pope” protest did a lot of damage. 500K tickets applied for, 130K turnout. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/23/ireland-catholic-church-protesters-pope-mass-tickets-protest
The Irish mirror are currently showing the same aerial shot and claiming its half a million. Clearly Irish Mirror readers aren’t able to distinguish. If they were the Mirror wouldn’t try that.
But what this tells me, is that if you write a script in Python to order tickets slowly over weeks filling in the same form… Well you can order several hundred thousand and nobody will know. Well, the church will since none of those illusory ticket bookings donate any money. So they will be aware of it, but they won’t tell anyone.
Well nobody in the gardai, the state, cie or the red cross will know… Unless you are dumb enough to point out how easy that is on the Journal.
Cos I think this is what happened. Its too large a fake booking to be just individuals… And there are still 100,000 tickets to be booked. Lol.
@Mickelodian Ranks: there were parishes who block booked tickets for groups and then couldn’t give them away in the end. There was protest booking but I don’t think it stopped anyone who wanted a ticket from getting one. Demand was simply lower than expected.
@gofreak: well assuming some sort of letter went out to parishes to get them to do so around a month ago then yeah that sounds like why the number of tickets suddenly increased in one week. Because that’s what happened. A month ago, suddenly the number of daily tickets booked increased.
As a coder I thought it looked like a scraping and booking script. It was roughly the same number booked per day, and it just smelled like a script. I know, I write these things every day, and thee days with machine learning plugged into a database of fake details they can be really convincing.
It just needs to be convincing enough that the site owners cantntell the real ones from the fakes and A.I. is superb at that. Just saying.
But your explanation also makes a lot of sense. Basically a pont came when it became obvious tickets were not being booked so the church relied on the priests to pish tickets.
They just didn’t realise there weren’t enough church goers to make that work. That makes sense… But it sure smells like automation.
@Mickelodian Ranks: churches in Galway where had loads of tickets yesterday
@Mickelodian Ranks: im aware how big that site is but 13000 is even pushing it.shockingly low turn out
Journal : you are no longer to be considered a reliable objective unbiased news agency. Real shame, thought you had a good platform. But your journalists failed you. I am not a RRC fam by the way, but I was in the park and saw the crowds. Granted less than 600k but way more reported by you,
And it was not just today but a pattern of biased reporting.
True liberalism means openness and truth.
You are are better than the hierarchy.
Ive no interest in the pope. However i get that people do and if they want to go see him that’s up to them. What i do not understand is people getting tickets because they deliberately dont want to go therefore denying the people who wanted to go a chance. I think thats very childish and spiteful.
About the fourth paragraph, if it was under a quarter of the number expected, then it would be fewer than 125,000, not 130,000.
Rush to judgement knee jerk reaction from the mob based on initial report of attendee numbers. An accurate picture via aerial photos will I’m sure materials in the next day or so. Take a chill pill folks…
Dam it…..nobody told me he was coming. Is there a second gig ?
I’m delighted it was under attended.
But, 120,000 attended Bloom in the park and had to walk less than 20 meters from the free shuttle bus to the entrance gate. This could have been organised much better, even if 500,000 had attended. Festivals in Spain are organised better.
I don’t thinks it’s the weather!
More people have read this article than attemdednall the events over the last day combined. We wasted at least €32 million on that and treated members of the Defence Forces like crap as well.
I think it was an oppurtunity lost by TFI and NTA to show how the have been updating Wheel Chair Taxis and freedom of mobility for Wheel Chair users .
Changing World maybe 40 years time
According to Paul Murphy, there was 800k people there.
Brainwashed rainwashed
Garth brooks had 100000 more booked to see him and the council stopped it ,
Even Trump would get more.
I saw a few articles blaming the rain for the low turnout. I’ve lived here 15 years and I can’t remember when the elements kept any Irish person I know from doing what they wanted to do.
Fair play to everyone who turned out to see the head of a pedophile cult
The giveaway in all those aeriel phots is the throgs of people still arriving ( left hand side of photos). No idea how many attended but what is clear is that the DUP should set up down South. ‘No Pope Here’ bigotry is alive both sides of the border.
No idea if the numbers are accurate – but the photo is definitely fake – this was about 1 hour to 45 minutes before the mass started – you can see them still entering on the left.
Fake news!
@Anthony Clark: sorry, buddy but the figures are based on gardai estimates -NOT on photographs.
What is this serious anti pope rhetoric. You mean over 130,000. Idiots.
@Earl of Daventry:
You: “Hey boss, I worked a full week and was supposed to get €500, but only got €130”
Boss: “You mean that you got over €130, idiot”
The semantics aren’t at fault, the comparison is against an expected 500,00 so is completely appropriate and warranted.
@Earl of Daventry: no, you mean over 130,000 idiots.
@Earl of Daventry: I doubt they were all idiots.. some of them were dragged along by family
Tell that to the survivers who the priests in Pennsylvania abused… Tell it to the woman who escaped the laundry and when the gardai returned her was beaten so badly she lost her hearing in one ear…so many babies in Castlepollard buried and only a nail in the wall to mark their existence… Put there by the gardener…. But huge crosses for the nuns …. sure not to worry…they meant well…and sure weren’t they all unmarried women thow magdalenes who deserved it….does anyone deserve to be treated like that?
Must say.daniel o Donnell was the highlight of the whole weekend.will never get another chance to play to such a large placid audience
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *takes breath* bbbaaaahhahahahahahaha
Actually watched a bit of this for the laugh but found it disturbing. A load of lunatics in robes preaching to people about an invisible Man then giving out haunted bread to the crowd. An organization that’s guilty of abuse, rape, kidnapping, slavery and war crimes. If any other group were responsible for this they would be disbanded
If only people would have the same kind of reaction to them chancers up in Leinster house
Speaks for itself. A bit of adverse weather wouldn’t have impacted on attendance at the Papal cross by those who are truly devout. The authorities are, and let’s face it, too embarrassed to admit that this was a disaster.
Of The €32m that the Papal visit cost, our beloved government should do us taxpayers justice and ask the Vatican to reimburse our share of what it cost, in terms of security, policing, etc…
RTE say 300K
RTE say 300K
Sad to journal stoop so low reporting. I like others who were there know 130k is very far of the mark.shame on you journal. Do you have a hidden agenda
?
@Wayne hall: sorry, buddy but the figures are based on gardai estimates -NOT on photographs.
have your say