Pope John Paul II touched the hearts of millions on his historic visit to Ireland in 1979.
Every church bell in Ireland heralded the Pope's jumbo jet, named St Patrick, on September 29 th, 1979, one of the first of scores of overseas trips during his papacy.
This was a pilgrim Pope, elected a year earlier as the 264th successor to St Peter, and the first ever to set foot on Irish soil.
The significance of the event was not lost on the Irish. Dublin was like a city prepared for a conqueror.
In Phoenix Park, one and a quarter million people made up probably the largest gathering in the country's history to see the Pope celebrate mass with 40 cardinals and bishops.
Everywhere he went, the magnitude of his reception surpassed all expectation. Almost half the Republic's three million population went to see the Pope in person. Ninety-six per cent of the population watched television coverage.
Nearly 500,000 people watched the Pope kneel in silent prayer at Our Lady's Shrine at Knock, Co Mayo, where 100 years earlier the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to 20 villagers on the gable of the parish church.
Throughout the three-day pastoral visit, the Pope travelled to each centre in the country by helicopter, ensuring the maximum time with the Irish people.
There had been fears that his presence so close to Northern Ireland might lead to violence by extreme Loyalist groups, possibly directed against the Pontiff himself. The Pope arrived just a month after the murder of Lord Mountbatten in Co Sligo and the killing of 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint.
In Drogheda, the Pope told the largely young congregation, including an estimated 250,000 from Northern Ireland: "On my knees, I beg you to turn away from violence.
"Further violence will only drag down to ruin the land you claim to love and the values you claim to cherish."
Although the IRA did not yield to his call to lay down their arms, the visit produced no parallel violence and led to goodwill from within the Protestant community.
PA