Your Holiness, members of the Papal Entourage, ladies and gentlemen, please return 
to your seats and fasten your seatbelts in preparation for landing at Dublin Airport".  
These words, spoken on the jumbo jet "Saint Patrick" on Saturday the 29th September 
1979, sent an emotional ripple up my spine as I watched the Holy Father, Pope John 
Paul II, turn away from the window to return to his seat. He had been watching with 
admiration and blessing with enthusiasm the vast concourse of people gathered below 
us in Phoenix Park. As he turned back to go to his seat I said to him: "Holy Father, 
welcome to my country, welcome to Ireland". His Holiness looked at me and with deep 
emotion in his voice said: "I thank God for enabling me to fulfill a long held 
desire to visit Ireland".

As we stepped out of the plane at Dublin Airport into a sunny but windy day and the 
Holy Father went on his knees to kiss the land of Ireland, there began, what later 
became known as, "The Alleluia Weekend of Ireland". That weekend unfolded as those 
short few days opened the heart of the Irish Nation to welcome the Vicar of Christ 
and he himself gave his all in every encounter in every celebration, in every 
speech and homily. From his Eucharist celebration in Phoenix Park with over one 
and a quarter million people where the theme was "It's the Mass that matters" he 
went to Drogheda where on bended knees he appealed to those engaged in violence: 
"I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the ways of 
peace". The encounter in Drogheda left a great impression on the Holy Father and 
has remained in his memory ever since. Recently I had the privilege of being 
invited to his table in the Vatican and he reminisced with me on the many Papal 
visits we had made together. Then he rightly said that for me the most memorable 
visit would have been that to Ireland. Suddenly he put me this question: "What 
did they do with the Drogheda Cross?" I was astonished. In the meantime the Holy 
Father has traveled over the whole world several times and has completed more 
than one hundred pastoral visits abroad and yet he would remember Drogheda and 
its Cross. I recalled on the occasion of his visit to the venue, north of Drogheda, 
on that first day of his visit the Holy Father took time to look at the large 
Celtic Cross that had been erected above the podium and, on that occasion, he 
said to me: "I wonder what will they do with this Cross?"  Some twenty-two years 
later he asked me that very question again. I told him that it had been erected 
on the side of the main road from Dublin to Belfast and I said that he would be 
most welcome to return and pay a visit to it. He replied immediately: "I would 
dearly wish to but on one condition that I would continue on the road to Belfast".
That first day of his visit was so packed that, some years later, the Holy Father 
said to me: "You know, they tried to kill me in Ireland". I was puzzled but he put
my mind at ease by explaining that the programme for the first day was impossible. 
His schedule was running two hours behind and he had still to meet the media. As 
he entered a packed hall full of print and broadcast media representatives, he was 
about to explain the delay but never got a chance - he was instantly greeted by 
the whole hall breaking into song: "For he's a jolly good fellow". That is a memory 
he carries with him and it always provokes a smile.

The visit to Clonmacnois was one Pope John Paul truly looked forward to. He wanted 
to personally render thanks for the one thousand years during which the Irish monks 
kept the faith in Jesus Christ alive in Europe and traveled as far as Kiev in the 
homeland of Poland to establish a seminary.  After this it was on to Galway for 
the celebration with teenagers and young adults, an occasion still etched in the 
memory not only of the Pope but of all who witnessed the enthusiastic response of 
the youth to the Holy Father's words: "Young people of Ireland, I love you! Young 
People of Ireland, I bless you!” I stood by his side and witnessed with him the 
spontaneous outburst of youthful enthusiasm.  The response of the young Irish to 
his now oft-quoted words clearly made a lasting impression on him, as years later 
His Holiness would say to me: "The most memorable encounter with youth I had was 
in Galway".

1979 was the centenary year of the Marian Apparitions in Knock.  With these words: 
"Here I am at the goal of my journey to Ireland: The Shrine of Our Lady at Knock", 
the Holy Father began his pilgrimage to the National Marian Shrine of Ireland. 
This was the culmination of his pastoral visit to the people of Ireland under 
the mantle of Mary. On that occasion, I remember very well, His Holiness, as he 
finished his homily asked me to write out for him an appropriate formula with 
which, at the end of the Mass, he could declare the New Church of Our Lady of 
Ireland a Basilica. The formal process had not as yet been completed in Rome to 
have such a declaration to be made.  However, the Pope decided on that day, 
Sunday 30th September 1979 that henceforth that beautiful Church would be known 
under the title of Basilica. How happy I was to comply!

On the final day of the visit the good weather which had accompanied us so far 
now gave way to a fog-bound Dublin and there was fear that the Maynooth visit 
would not take place en route to Limerick. However, the Holy Father decided 
himself that Maynooth was certainly to be visited and having delivered his 
speech to all the priests, missionaries, religious and seminarians of Ireland - 
at a speed which astonished me - he then asked the crowd: "How many mistakes 
did the Pope make in his speech?!" His sense of humour blending so well with 
the sense of the moment endeared him to all and all who heard him, with his 
deep resonant voice, and witnessed the depth of his faith and commitment could 
not but say: "Christ has walked in our midst today".

Limerick racecourse was the venue for the last great encounter with the people 
of Ireland when the Holy Father spoke to the families on the sanctity of marriage 
and the sacredness of human life. I remember well the pressures which were upon 
us to get the Pope to Shannon on time for his onward journey to America. But 
His Holiness seemed almost reluctant to go. He had come to know the people of 
Ireland and in a sense he was going to leave part of his heart with them. 
During the first week of his Pontificate the Holy Father had confided in me 
that he wished, in his first year, to make three visits: to Mexico, to Poland 
and to Ireland. He wished to say to each of these peoples "Semper Fidelis" 
- always faithful - a title which he said each of these Nations merited for 
their long standing fidelity to the Eucharist, to the Mother of God and to 
the Person of the Vicar of Christ. Each of these Nations had, down through 
centuries of persecution, remained faithful and so the last words of the Vicar 
of Christ on Irish soil were "Ireland: semper fidelis", always faithful.

This year we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of that memorable visit to Ireland 
of the Vicar of Christ. It was the third Pastoral Visit of the Pope outside of 
Italy in his now more than twenty five years of Pontificate. The first two 
visits were to Mexico and to Poland. He himself has said that every visit is 
a pilgrimage to the shrine of the People of God. He has now made some 104 
pastoral visits outside of Italy. Pope John Paul II has been, and continues 
to be, the missionary par excellence. To commemorate the Papal Visit to Ireland 
twenty five years ago there will be held two National events: the first on 
Sunday, 19th September in Clonmacnois and the second on Sunday 3rd October 
in Holy Trinity Church, Cork, which will open a three day celebration of 
“ Mission Alive”, dedicated to the theme of Mission and the Sacredness of 
Human Life. This theme has been very much at the heart of the Pastoral Ministry 
of Pope John Paul II in all of his Papal Visits throughout the world. Our 
celebration of the 25th anniversary of his Visit to Ireland will give us 
the opportunity to call to mind and heart, in a spirit of gratitude, the 
richness of his teaching, the enthusiasm of his encounters and the example 
of his life, a life totally dedicated to the service of God’s People.
As I look back on that "Alleluia Weekend" in 1979, I thank God for the 
great privilege I had of accompanying the Vicar of Christ to my country 
and I pray for the possibility of a return visit.  Today we should embrace 
the lasting legacy of his pilgrimage to Ireland: a call to fidelity, a call 
to peace, a call to love in Christ. Moladh go deo le Dia!

Dr John Magee is Bishop of Cloyne, Chairman of the Bishops’ Commission on 
the Liturgy and a member of its Commission for the Missions.  He is a former 
private secretary to Pope John II.