THE heat was relentless that day at the beginning of June. A baby suffered from dehydration; hundreds of people needed treatment for heat exhaustion, sunstroke, nosebleeds and fainting. A man required stitches for a nose wound when a lemonade bottle-top exploded in his face.
There were men and boys, stripped to the waist. Some women wore bikini tops. There were children in swimsuits.
It was a day of triumph for the 250,000 souls who crowded into Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park, and for the man who was the reason why they were there: Pope John Paul II.
His address to them was received ecstatically. The crowd’s applause silenced him for seven minutes. As he waited for the cheers and the clapping to subside he teased them: “It was a moment, not only one moment but several moments, when a Pope became silent and you became preaching. You became witnessing that this is a day made memorable by the Lord. What immense joy for us”.
Indeed, the only sombre note of the entire day came when he alluded to the Falklands War: “In the joy of our celebration today we cannot permit ourselves,” he said, “to forget the victims of the war, both the dead and the wounded, as well as the broken hearts of many families".
Papal souvenir tents scattered across the arena did a roaring trade throughout the day.
A “Popescope”, a small cardboard telescope retailing for £1, was snapped up by those in the crowd positioned in the more distant parts of Bellahouston’s 175 acres.
During the Mass a number of symbolic gifts were presented to the Pope, representing aspects of Scotland’s religious, cultural, industrial and sporting life. Among them were 186 papal letters sent to Scotland between 1100 and 1198, and a framed photograph of an oil rig leaving Clydebank.
As the papal helicopter awaited take-off clearance, the huge crowd serenaded him with rousing Scottish songs. “Glasgow belongs to me,” they sang, and "Will Ye No’ Come Back Again", as hundreds of white-frocked priests broke ranks to gather on the hillside to wave John Paul a fond farewell.
Read more: Herald Diary
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