No Pope Please, We're Irish

Here's a thing...ahead of the current Pope's imminent visit to the UK, some 2,500 tickets were allocated to potential Irish visitors, from both sides of the border, who might want to make the short trip over the water. However, they've only apparently managed to shift about 1,000 of them.

Now, I remember as a kid John Paul II's visit to the UK being a massive event, even in my distinctly anti-Catholic family environment, and the Papal visit to Ireland that happened at about the same time brought a huge number of people out (around a million apparently, in an island with a population of less than 5 million at that time).

But thirty years or so, a myriad of abuse scandals and Father Ted later, and the Catholic Church is definitely a big no no in Ireland now, and yet in England, with various high profile conversions, not least that of Tony Blair, seems to be stronger than it has been since the reformation. How things have changed.