Two official bodies have declined to put an exact figure on the number of people who attended the mass by Pope Francis in the Phoenix Park yesterday.

Both the Office of Public Works and An Garda Síochána confirmed that the numbers that attended were less than expected and that it made operations on the day easier.

However, they said they did not have the information to confirm the exact attendances.

Sources suggest that the figure may have been between 150,000-200,000, but said that as there was no scanning of tickets it was not possible to calculate exactly how many were in the Phoenix Park.

Garda Chief Superintendent Finbarr Murphy said that the organisers of the event do the counting for the attendance, but said it was less than the number expected.

"We don’t do the counting on it, the event organisers do, it was less than the 500,000 anticipated but I think the important piece was for those that did come, we made it a safe venue to come in and enjoy the day," he said.



Margaret Gormley from the OPW said that the smaller crowd made the operation easier.

"We had infrastructure here to cope with whatever numbers turned up," she said.

She added: "It probably was a little bit more comfortable for people coming in and going out, they were able to go at their leisure."

The Health Service Executive Medical Assessment Unit in the park saw 31 patients yesterday during the mass.

Of these, 16 people were transferred to hospitals. There were no fatalities.

The unit dealt with fractures, slips, falls, people with diabetes and other conditions.

Overall, the HSE said it dealt with anticipated volumes of patients.

A large number of agencies supported the HSE, including the Order of Malta, St John Ambulance, Irish Red Cross and Civil Defence.

Deconstruction of the altar and the other infrastructure around the Papal Cross is under way and will continue for a number of days.





The park reopened to the public at 4pm this afternoon.

This enabled the OPW to changed the temporary gates back to permanent ones, reinstalling road signs that were taken away and removing tar from kerbs that was added for the event to allow universal access.

The OPW said that mass-goers left very little impact in the park, with most using green bags provided to dispose of litter, which has made the clean-up operation quicker and easier than expected.