Formally speaking, the race for the next pope doesn’t open until 9.30am on Monday, when all the cardinals who have made it to Rome by then will meet for the first time in what’s called a “general congregation”.

He might have been over 1,000 miles away in Rome, but the words of Pope Benedict prompted a standing ovation after they echoed around a packed Croke Park yesterday.

Eighty years and a world away from its last staging in Ireland, the International Eucharistic Congress has returned to Dublin to the delight of devout Catholics and a marked indifference by the wider public.