MAY 30, 1982. Sweating workmen, stripped to the waist in blazing sunshine, rolled out the red carpet as frantic last-minute preparations went on for the arrival of Pope John Paul II in Scotland the following day.
Police chiefs supervised final security arrangements for the 39-hour visit, which would include a youth rally of 45,000 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, and a Mass for 250,000 at Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park.
On Monday, May 31, the Pope arrived at Edinburgh Airport, and kissed the tarmac after stepping off the plane.
“One historic kiss on the turf of a nation in waiting,” read the headline in a special Glasgow Herald supplement. (The paper had assigned no fewer than nine photographers to cover the visit.)
At Murrayfield, the flag- and scarf-waving crowd (above) overwhelmed the Pope with their fervour, interrupting his speech after almost every phrase to declare: “John Paul, John Paul!”. “I love you,” he told his youthful audience. They serenaded him with songs, including You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Later, at the Kirk’s Assembly Hall, he shook hands for the first time with a Moderator on Scottish soil.
His handshake with the Right Rev Professor John McIntyre, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, “signified a symbolic reconciliation of 450 years of antipathy and sectarian warring”, the Herald noted.
Protestors threw eggs and chanted slogans at the papal vehicle at the top of the Mound. Police later said that 10 people had been arrested.
The Pope then attended St Mary’s Cathedral for a service for the clergy in Scotland. It had been a triumphant day.
* Tomorrow: The Pope at Bellahouston
Read more: Herald Diary
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