What was the first gig you ever went to?

 

Me?

OMD at Oxford Apollo

(Capacity – a few thousand)

But no. I’m talking proper big gigs.

 

I went to see the Pope at Ninian Park, Cardiff

(after he’d performed in Ireland)

 

It was a mad day.

I was still an Altar server back then.

 

35,000 believers singing on the way there,

whilst there and on the way back.

To be honest I can’t re much about the day

apart from the singing.

 

John Paul II.

He was the cool relatable non-Italian Pope.

 

History is repeating itself.

We have a cool relatable non-Italian Pope

coming over to Ireland.

But the landscape has changed

Church attendance was 90 percent back then,

now it’s down to 40 percent.

(I surprised it’s that high.)

 

People are clambering for tickets and planning not to go.

A dignified protest of an empty stadium?

The Irish government is spending £27 million on the event.

Maybe that money would be better spent

on the victims of abuse handed out in the name of Catholicism?

 

The religion is dying, along with the old people.

It can’t re-invent itself.

There will be no Catholisism v2.0

Its lack of pragmatism and refusal

to fully cooperate with abuse investigations

are killing it off faster than anything else.

How can it atone for its own sins?

No corporation is too big to fail.

 

I still have my Ninian Park scarf.

I don’t know why.

Maybe its to prove my credentials

whenever I get into religious debates.

Maybe it reminds me of a more carefree time.

Maybe I like the colours.

Maybe it’s a reminder for me

to always be

cool, honest and relatable.