Taoiseach joins mourners in memorial mass for Pope

The Pope’s death has deprived the Irish people of his final message to them, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern heard tonight.

Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin told the State’s main memorial service at the city’s Pro-Cathedral: “We do not know what Pope John Paul II might have said to us had he been able to realise his desire to return to Ireland.”