So who's going to see the Pope?

harr

I can imagine the poor weather conditions keeping the numbers down in knock ... 45,000 tickets allocated.

sonofenoch

Knock Knock
who's there
Pope
pope who...



can't beat the old classics

rafatoni

10km tailback in knock. Some traffic jam that.

Varta

Some mad bint screaming her head off on the sound system in the park at 7/8am this morning. Very considerate of the locals... not!

The Talking Bread

Varta wrote: »

Some mad bint screaming her head off on the sound system in the park at 7/8am this morning. Very considerate of the locals... not!

I anticipate she is doing her job. No need to personally attack her.

SeaFields

He seems to have a very large security detail. Are they armed?

Sycamore Tree

You have to hand it to the people of Mayo/Knock. I mean Knock is a pure scam really but it does great marketing. From all accounts it is highly unlikely there was any "apparition" and the chosen ones were coached in what to say afterwards when it became a big story. And today you have a situation where the relatives of the children who saw Mary/Saints own all the shops on the main street selling all the religious junk. Making a fortune.
.

harr

SeaFields wrote: »

He seems to have a very large security detail. Are they armed?

He has his own small security detail and a lot of what was with him yesterday would have been plain clothes guards from various divisions.
Not sure about the popes own security but the Irish lads would have been definitely armed.

The Talking Bread

SeaFields wrote: »

He seems to have a very large security detail. Are they armed?

Holy water. If it works for exorcisms it should work for a physical attck

mugsymugsy

Sycamore Tree wrote: »

You have to hand it to the people of Mayo/Knock. I mean Knock is a pure scam really but it does great marketing. From all accounts it is highly unlikely there was any "apparition" and the chosen ones were coached in what to say afterwards when it became a big story. And today you have a situation where the relatives of the children who saw Mary/Saints own all the shops on the main street selling all the religious junk. Making a fortune.
.

The grandson of one of the people that saw the apparition is on rte and as you say he does have a shop selling tat

Autochange

The ban hammer has been busy on this thread.
Nothing like a bit of religion to stir up some division and hatred between folk.

Fighting Tao

Autochange wrote: »

The ban hammer has been busy on this thread.
Nothing like a bit of religion to stir up some division and hatred between folk.

All seems to be stemming from those who claim to be Christian. Weird that!

antodeco

Varta wrote: »

Some mad bint screaming her head off on the sound system in the park at 7/8am this morning. Very considerate of the locals... not!

I genuinely thought my neighbours had gone off their rockers and were pumping out holy music, as oppose to the usual dance music. Collaboration between both. "Don't you know Pope it up, you've got to Pope it up".

Varta

I don't believe it was deliberate but it was certainly thoughtless. She sounded like she was fluffing a crowd of teenagers for a teenybop concert. Much quieter from around 10.30 Why the organisers did this to locals, who are already very put out, is beyond me.

Try_harder

The only person going form my whole family and extended family is my mother. She's only going cos her friend got a ticket and asked her to go with her. I hope she'll be ok with the long day and all the walking

Irish Kings

Varta wrote: »

Some mad bint screaming her head off on the sound system in the park at 7/8am this morning. Very considerate of the locals... not!

was yer ma at it again ?

How Soon Is Now

Irish Kings wrote: »

was yer ma at it again ?

This is your joke of choice I see?

rossie1977

Sycamore Tree wrote: »

You have to hand it to the people of Mayo/Knock. I mean Knock is a pure scam really but it does great marketing. From all accounts it is highly unlikely there was any "apparition" and the chosen ones were coached in what to say afterwards when it became a big story. And today you have a situation where the relatives of the children who saw Mary/Saints own all the shops on the main street selling all the religious junk. Making a fortune.
.

I doubt they were coached. You are talking old people, kids, most of them probably with little to no education. One or two of them would have spilled the beans eventually and none did.

I believe they saw something that night. Based on eye witness reports it's sounded to me like a projector of some sort was used and in 1879 rural Mayo that would have seemed other worldly.

Ilovethe bonesofyou

How Soon Is Now wrote:

This is your joke of choice I see?

The old yore ma "joke" on after hours. So original and hilarious.

EdgeCase

The biggest issue I see with Knock is a religious motivation caused the development of an airport in a small town with poorly connected infrastructure and resulted in Galway Airport never developing properly, which is a huge problem for Galway City and hinterland and the prospects for the West of Ireland's serious hub

However, the West of Ireland is full of bonkers planning decisions and I'm going OT

How Soon Is Now

Ilovethe bonesofyou wrote: »

The old yore ma "joke" on after hours. So original and hilarious.

Especially when it's used more then once in same thread!!

Ilovethe bonesofyou

EdgeCase wrote:

The biggest issue I see with Knock is a religious motivation caused the development of an airport in a small town with poorly connected infrastructure and resulted in Galway Airport never developing properly, which is a huge problem for Galway City and hinterland and the prospects for the West of Ireland's serious hub.

It's very handy for people in the north west though like Sligo, leitrim, Donegal etc. Doesn't Galway at least have motorway all the way to Dublin?

Ilovethe bonesofyou

How Soon Is Now wrote:

Especially when it's used more then once in same thread!!

There's still people can genuinely make you laugh out loud on boards but they're few and far between.

ELM327

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

Especially when it's used more then once in same thread!!

Just like yore ma




sorry

Hitman3000

Richard Bingham wrote:

What scandal are the media going to get your balls all twisted up over next year. You don't even know yet.

All I got from your rant was deflection. Your church raped and abused kids. Your pope has covered up abuse yet you are happy to call others sheep for daring to question the church. Hilarious.

rossie1977

EdgeCase wrote: »

The biggest issue I see with Knock is a religious motivation caused the development of an airport in a small town with poorly connected infrastructure and resulted in Galway Airport never developing properly, which is a huge problem for Galway City and hinterland and the prospects for the West of Ireland's serious hub.

Galway airport would be struggling without Knock airport ever existing. The rail and road network from Galway city to Dublin means it's pretty pointless flying from the East. You have Shannon just over an hour south which would automatically get the transatlantic and main European routes.

Knock airport has exceeded everyone's expectations for what a small rural airport should be. When it lost the revenue from duty free it started to charge the €10 departure fee.

CB19Kevo

On a wet day like today its even harder for me to understand the appeal of it all.
If it was a rock concert i could understand,But a muddy field for hours and hours to see the pope!
Each to there own i suppose...

EdgeCase

Ilovethe bonesofyou wrote: »

It's very handy for people in the north west though like Sligo, leitrim, Donegal etc. Doesn't Galway at least have motorway all the way to Dublin?

It does now but it puts it at a huge disadvantage relative to Cork in particular for FDI. I've literally heard it come up at meetings when both locations were being discussed. It's still the guts of a 2:45 drive to Dublin, more if there's traffic onnthr M50 and approaching Dublin.

An airport in Galway and a decent DC/Motorway route up the west coast linking in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and South Donegal would have made a hell of a lot more sense as you'd have a viable regional network with a bit of scale for healthcare, universities and so on in Galway.

But, alas, we do parish pump planning so it never happens.

But back to the pope's visit.

You'd wonder what will become or Knock long term. I've been hearing the numbers or people visit have dwindled over the years.

Is there a plan for Knock in a less religiously focused Ireland?

4068ac1elhodqr

Anyone done a headcount as of yet?
Can't imagine 500,000 will actually show up somehow.

Ilovethe bonesofyou

EdgeCase wrote:

An airport in Galway and a decent DC/Motorway route up the west coast linking in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and South Donegal would have made a hell of a lot more sense as you'd have a viable regional network with a bit of scale for healthcare, universities and so on in Galway.

As someone already pointed out though, you've already got Shannon down that end of the country which is advantageous for Galway. Knock is handy for this side of the country. I agree with you re the motorway for this side though.

EdgeCase

erica74 wrote: »

It's funny how delusional the organisers were about the numbers they expected.
Still no apology and no action from the man in charge of that corrupt organisation.
Lashing rain today for that mass.
Maybe he's planning on issuing an apology and a plan of action today.

To be fair to the they literally had no idea what to expect. I would be hugely critical of the church and the state's odd relationship with it but, it could have been big, small, middling or even openly hostile. The reality is nobody could really predict it and it's a very odd and complex dynamic.

I'd rather see it over organised and going smoothly than under organised and turning into a mess. You're also talking about a lot of old and not necessarily very mobile attendees.

I think they've just gone with the prepare for everything approach. The downside is that it's cost a small fortune.

I think we know to scale things back a lot for any subsequent visits in the decades ahead. Once in almost 40 years isn't really that big a deal but I think it'll be a long time before any future pope's are back and probably never on this kind of scale of organisation.

You've also still got a situation where the population keeps telling the state on the census that it's 80% Catholic and then doesn't seem to actually be much more than nominally so. That further adds to confused policy making and distortions.

Maybe we need a "practicing Catholic" box or a box that asks : "do you need religious ethos services?"

whiskeyman

Harold Rhythmic Cornbread wrote: »

Anyone done a headcount as of yet?
Can't imagine 500,000 will actually show up somehow.

Overhead shot on rte showed barely a tenth full.
I know still plenty coning into the park, but I think it'll be way off the 500k mark.
The poor weather this morning won't have helped.

EdgeCase

I'd reckon 200,000 max and I think that's very optimistic.

I spoke to a lot of older people who had no intentions of going.

There's much more of a sense of what the public interest is today than there was a few weeks ago. You can fairly clearly see it's a bit of a national "meh"

FrancieBrady

RTE reporting sparse crowd. People ignoring corrals and moving to the front.

Surprised at such a low turnout, I thought they would really muster the troops for this one.

EdgeCase

I get the impression there simply aren't any troops to muster. I think we are really seeing the organisation as an outward shell of its former self.
The decline has also been rapid enough that I think many both inside and outside the church are often a bit surprised. It's just a huge shift in Irish sociology.

We've gone from a somewhat extreme version of being devout Catholics to a far more normal relationship with religion that is looking much more like the rest of Northern Europe. It's just the change happened more rapidly, compressed over a few decades.

Beechwoodspark

Hearing from my friends there’s a fairly low turnout at the protest event

Must say, I’m surprised. I thought there’d be a huge crowd protesting. But no, seemingly not.

Yer Da sells Avon

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Surprised at such a low turnout, I thought they would really muster the troops for this one.

As the last two referendums showed, the troops just aren't there any more.

FrancieBrady

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Hearing from my friends there’s a fairly low turnout at the protest event

Must say, I’m surprised. I thought there’d be a huge crowd protesting. But no, seemingly not.

Are they saying it's 'a brilliant day' over and over to try and convince themselves?

Beechwoodspark

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Are they saying it's 'a brilliant day' over and over to try and convince themselves?

Not so far anyway

Ronan|Raven

Could do with a bit of crowd control with people walking in front of the popemobile.

EdgeCase

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Hearing from my friends there’s a fairly low turnout at the protest event

Must say, I’m surprised. I thought there’d be a huge crowd protesting. But no, seemingly ppl are not too bothered or something.

It's weird though. It's not like an anger it's more like a sense of bitter disappointment and betrayal. I think that's what you're seeing in the response.

I don't think you'll see angry protests but more of a quietly walking away.

I mean like it or not; the church did play a very big role in Irish society and it's a bit like having discovered a relative did something utterly awful. You don't necessarily react with an outburst or anger. It's more a gnawing, sad sense or deep betrayal and a reassessment of your relationship with them, or even whether you want to just no longer have any relationship with them.

I think that's where Ireland is at the moment with the Catholic Church.

It's great to see the country moving forward and being progressive but it's also very sad to see the trust of so many people having been so utterly betrayed and abused.

Some people will express that by protesting most will just fizzle out the relationship.

That's the reality of it and I think it's probably just the end of an era being displayed with a lack of interest.

I know talking to one or two of my older relatives; th sense you get is they feel like they were conned.

PTH2009

I'd say hes fairly pissed of at waving

Ronan|Raven

EdgeCase wrote: »

It's weird though. It's not like an anger it's more like a sense of bitter disappointment and betrayal. I think that's what you're seeing in the response.

I don't think you'll see angry protests but more of a quietly walking away.

I mean like it or not; the church did play a very big role in Irish society and it's a bit like having discovered a relative did something utterly awful. You don't necessarily react with an outburst or anger. It's more a gnawing, sad sense or deep betrayal and a reassessment of your relationship with them, or even whether you want to just no longer have any relationship with them.

I think that's where Ireland is at the moment with the Catholic Church.

It's great to see the country moving forward and being progressive but it's also very sad to see the trust of so many people having been so utterly betrayed and abused.

Some people will express that by protesting most will just fizzle out the relationship.

That's the reality of it and I think it's probably just the end of an era being displayed with a lack of interest.

I know talking to one or two of my older relatives; th sense you get is they feel like they were conned.

One of the best posts I have read in a long time and really does sum it up.

Hitman3000

Beechwoodspark wrote:

Hearing from my friends there’s a fairly low turnout at the protest event

If you are attempting to troll you need to up your game. Poor attempt tbh. 4 /10

Spanish Eyes

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Could do with a bit of crowd control with people walking in front of the popemobile.

Yes I agree, it was looking very hairy there and the security detail were looking quite concerned!

I'm sure it will all be fine in the end.

I think the numbers are OK. Looks quite full to me. I reckon those at the back will move forward if there is room. Feck the ticket colour this is Ireland!

Hitman3000

EdgeCase wrote:

I know talking to one or two of my older relatives; th sense you get is they feel like they were conned.

Great response and completely accurate.

road_high

EdgeCase wrote: »

I'd reckon 200,000 max and I think that's very optimistic.

I spoke to a lot of older people who had no intentions of going.

There's much more of a sense of what the public interest is today than there was a few weeks ago. You can fairly clearly see it's a bit of a national "meh"

Turnout looks poor. Hasn't been that wet in the east of the country really, Knock looked actually wet!

road_high

The security are quite heavy handed. Shouldering women and children out of the way :eek:
Not very Christian is it?

harr

You would imagine they would have had the crowd fenced off instead of having to drive through them...security doing a good job in these circumstances.

Spanish Eyes

road_high wrote: »

The security are quite heavy handed. Shouldering women and children out of the way :eek:
Not very Christian is it?

TBH they had to do it, otherwise Frankie would have been totally mobbed. Looked a bit dangerous there.