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Niall Carson
pope in ireland
Enda Kenny has invited Pope Francis to Ireland
The Taoiseach says that his office would do all it could to ensure a successful visit.
ENDA KENNY HAS said that he hopes that Pope Francis will visit Ireland.
The Taoiseach met the Pope today at a ceremony declaring the canonisation of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII.
Kenny told reporters in Rome that he had invited the Pope to visit Ireland, saying that he hoped the Pope would travel to Northern Ireland.
He said that while the official invitation would have to be sent out by the Catholic Church in Ireland, his office would do all it could to ensure a successful visit.
Only one Pope has visited Ireland in the past. In September 1979, more than a million people turned out to see Pope John Paul II in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
Although a planned trip up North in 1979 was cancelled, councillors in Belfast have already voted in favour of extending an invitation to the Pope.
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