All tickets for the visit of Pope Francis to Knock Shrine in Co Mayo have been allocated after they were made available online this morning.

The Pope will be in Ireland on 25 and 26 August to attend the Catholic World Meeting of Families (WMOF) in Dublin's Croke Park, and to celebrate the closing mass of the gathering at the Phoenix Park.

More than 45,000 tickets were made available for the event in Knock where the pontiff will recite the Angelus.

Ticket numbers are limited to 500,000 for the event in Phoenix Park and there are still tickets available at worldmeeting2018.ie.

Last week, security measures were put in place to ensure that tickets for the visits are not sold on by touts.

The organisers of the World Meeting of Families said that while voluntary contributions will be welcome when tickets are made available online, anybody attempting to sell the free tickets should be reported to gardaí.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, WMOF spokesperson Brenda Drumm said demand was high and that tickets were available on a first come, first served basis.

She also said that she was confident that there was adequate technology in place to deal with demand and that people would get one hour from the time they log on to complete the process.

Ms Drumm explained that tickets for both events are free, but warned that adults and children will need tickets and children cannot attend on an adult ticket.

Read more:

Preparations for papal visit at Knock under way

Itinerary of Pope Francis' visit to Ireland

Catholic Church embarking on Papal marketing mission



