IT WAS cold. It was damp, with a breeze from Vladivostok.
But it was impossible not to be moved by the spirit at Croke Park yesterday as tens of thousands of Irish Catholics celebrated their faith with the same deep loyalty as their ancestors had done down the centuries.
There may not have been as many as expected; about 50,000, according to gardaí, but they remain steadfast while their church is in some adversity.
Yesterday, as with this past week, was about more spiritual matters.
It was about going deep inside to that central Catholic tenet of very personal communication with God: the Eucharist.
It was also about going back to basics for a church which “abused people and undermined the credibility of the church’s message”, as Pope Benedict put it in his message to the congress.
Yesterday was a beginning, too.
As Archbishop Martin said in his address, “Tomorrow we must start our catechesis anew to prolong the fruits of this Eucharistic Congress.”
Among the political dignitaries present were President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Ireland’s representative to the Holy See and secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs David Cooney.
There too was former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, who attended that altogether different 31st International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin back in 1932 when Ireland’s Catholic Church emerged from a grim past into what seemed then the brightest of new days.
Among many other familiar faces were former SDLP leader John Hume and Tyrone GAA football manager Mickey Harte.
The next International Eucharistic Congress – the 51st – will be in Cebu city in the Philippines in four years, an announcement that was greeted with delight by Filipinos in Croke Park yesterday.
Archbishop Martin prayed that it would bring the same special blessing there “as this Congress has brought to Dublin and Ireland”.