The papal visit: Behind the scenes at Knock

The air in Knock, Co Mayo is bristling with anticipation as the village polishes its rosary beads for the upcoming papal visit.

The Pope will be travelling to the famously holy area to visit the Knock Shrine with around 45,000 people on 26 August.

Although he will only be staying for one hour, the trip is sure to be stuffed with celebration and excitement. He will land into Knock airport at 9.45am and this landing in itself has been subject to months of preparation.

Airport

“There aren’t many papal visits to Ireland, never mind the west of Ireland,” says Donal Healy, head of aviation development, marketing and communications at Ireland West Airport, Knock.

According to Healy, there have been regular meetings for the past couple of months to organise the brief stopover. Representatives from the Vatican even came to the airport to scope the place out.

Pope Francis will be landing into a closed off section in the airport, separate from the other 5,000 odd passengers flying as normal that day.

The main roads to the airport will be closed off the night before and some of the day with diversions in place. The terminal buildings are being decorated and 100 schoolchildren have been invited from local schools to wave at the Pope’s Aer Lingus flight as he arrives into Knock.

“It is symbolic when you think back to the last visit, the airport was really pushed by Monsignor James Horan to get built after that,” says Donal.

Shrine

When the Pope departs the airport, he will be heading straight to the nearby Knock Shrine. The previous visit took place on the centenary of the Knock apparition.

The shrine has also been subject to heavy planning for the hordes of people wanting to see the Pope in the flesh. Unfortunately, this won’t be a reality for most ticket-holders.

“The people further away may not be able to see him but we will have screens available on the day,” says Maria Casey, communications manager at Knock Shrine.

The shrine has been working with the Office of Public Works and the World Meeting of Families for the visit. The plaza in the middle of the village has been done up and there will be signage, bunting and painting throughout the area.

The Knock Parish Choir will be singing and the Pope will have a few minutes of quiet prayer in the apparition chapel before saying the Angelus with the crowd.

The tickets were snapped up in three hours after being released at 5am in early July.

“It did exceed our expectations and I think it exceeded the WMOF’s expectations too,” Maria says.

No room at the inn

Booking a room for the night is nigh on impossible at this point. Local B&Bs are mostly full and the Knock House Hotel is also booked up on the nights before and after the trip.