I was only nine when I welcomed Pope to Ireland
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- Flower girl Liz Jackson
LIZ Jackson was one of the first people in the country to meet the Pope -- the nine-year-old presented him with flowers as he stepped off the plane.
Liz, who is now 39, lives in Lucan, and is the mother of three young boys, said she didn't really comprehend the significance of the honour bestowed on her until much later.
Instead, she was delighted because her mother bought her a pair of black patent high-heeled shoes as a bribe to wear the red dress with black polka dots which she wasn't so keen on.
And she was interviewed on the RTE radio show 'Poparama'. "I was more excited about that than anything else."
Years later, her mother died within months of the Pope's passing and suddenly the visit meant more to her. "I got a strange comfort because I thought, well, at least he'll be in Heaven with mam."
- TD Dr James McDaid
On the day the Pope visited Galway, Dr McDaid spent the day pacing the floor of his Letterkenny home waiting for the phone to ring.
His ex-wife, Marguerite, had travelled to Ballybrit Racecourse with their three young children, but a short time after their arrival, the youngest, Jason (6), got lost in a crowd of 200,000.
"He was gone for around four hours.
"It was absolutely frustrating but I remember breathing a huge sigh of relief when I got the call to say he had been found," he said.
- Garda Sergeant Pat Anglim
Now retired, Pat had to solve the major headache of arranging parking facilities for the crowd of 300,000 expected at Ballybrit.
He personally visited every farmer on the main approach roads to Galway to ask them to make their fields available. "Not one farmer refused and each field then had to be surveyed before the county council came in to knock walls and lay gravel," he recalled.
Thirty years later, his abiding memory is of the goodwill of all involved in the massive operation. "The people who travelled from Connemara had to leave their cars at South Park in the city and walk out to Ballybrit, but there was only good humour," he said.
- Mayor of Limerick Bobby Byrne
ROSARY beads and a medallion were personally given by the Pope to Mayor Byrne on his arrival to the city.
An estimated 400,000 people waited for the Pope at the Greenpark racecourse in the city. It was the last day of his Irish trip.
"His helicopter was delayed coming to Limerick because of the fog at Maynooth. He sent word ahead to start the ceremony and he arrived in the middle of it," recalled Mr Byrne. "He struck me as being a wonderful, inspirational man."
- Grainne Cunningham, Brian McDonald and Anita Guidera
