LOOK at the sheer joy on that woman's face. Whether you have any religious belief or not, you surely cannot begrudge this woman's utter happiness at Pope John Paul II visiting Glasgow's Bellahouston Park in June, 1982, when a truly remarkable crowd of 300,000 filled the park to bursting. It was a beautiful day, and the task of ensuring everyone got to the park was a mammoth undertaking for the Catholic Church.
The M8 motorway simply became a bus park, and the crowd, believed to be the largest ever assembled in Scotland, waited patiently until the Pope arrived by helicopter. Scores of people were treated for dehydration and sun-stroke, but they didn't seem to mind. More than 1000 priests offered communion at the park and a choir of 1200 entertained the vast crowds. It was live on television for hours.
All leave was cancelled at the Evening Times as thousands of copies of that day's paper filled with pictures of the event were rushed out to the park to sell to the crowd.
I still haven't forgiven the then news editor for instructing me to monitor the news from elsewhere in case there was a major breaking story. In truth the Pope's visit was such a huge story that if the Queen Mother had galloped down Sauchiehall Street on the back of a unicorn it probably would not have made the paper. So I did what any true journalist would do - I went to the pub.
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