Lynch was a hurler on the ditch for most popular event in Irish history

THE visit of Pope John Paul II was undoubtedly the most popular event that ever took place in this country. It was witnessed in person by more people than the visit of President John F Kennedy in 1963 or President Bill Clinton in 1995. Yet strangely, the Vatican and the Catholic hierarchy treated Taoiseach Jack Lynch and his government with a degree of disdain.

The first real indication that the Irish embassy in the Vatican got that the Pope intended to visit Ireland was on May 23, 1979 from Fr Dermot Martin, who is now the Archbishop of Dublin.

Fr Romeo Panciroli, the head of the Vatican press office, had told him he was present two days earlier when the deputy secretary of state was about to telephone the Irish ambassador and the archbishop of Armagh with the news. But nobody called the ambassador.