Congress reduced to niche affair

Our interest in this year’s event is at odds with the pomp and piety of 1932, says Gerard Howlin

WE may have changed our heroes but not our habits. The world of scapulars, holy water, and relics has disappeared but the taste for public spectacle has not. Across Britain, bunting, tea towels, mugs, and street parties were everywhere last weekend as jubilee mania took hold.

The crowded and festooned streets that welcomed the Papal Legate Cardinal Lauri into Dublin for the Eucharistic Congress in 1932 were evocative of a triumphal entry. It was reminiscent of the welcome given 30 years previously to King George V and repeated 30 years later for John F Kennedy.