Songs of Praise: Season 2018, Episode 33

2018 - 33: Pope in Ireland

It's been 40 years since the last papal visit to Ireland, and Claire McCollum is there to join the celebrations for the historic visit of Pope Francis. The Holy Father specially chose Dublin to host the World Meeting of Families 2018, the largest international gathering of families in the world. We meet up with the 100 strong group travelling from the Archdiocese of Birmingham to be part of the event and we're in Croke Park Stadium for the Festival of Families. One of the places Pope Francis will visit is Knock Shrine and Sean Fletcher finds out what draws 1.5 million pilgrims there every year. There's also another opportunity to see how Claire got on when she joined pilgrims climbing Croagh Patrick, known as Ireland's holy mountain, on Reek Sunday. Claire finds out why some young Christians choose to climb barefoot, despite the mountain being covered in sharp stones. There are hymns from Ireland and a performance of Amazing Grace by the group Celtic Woman, filmed on Clew Bay.