The Mobile Recording Unit traveled to Rome for the Holy Year ceremonies. Reporter P.P. O'Reilly sets the scene in the Basilica of St Peter for radio listeners as pilgrims wait for the arrival of Pope Pius XII.

Speaking in English with a little Pope Pius XII welcomes the Irish pilgrims which is greeted with a loud cheer.

The Mobile Recording Unit made their way through a city crowded with pilgrims and prelates, using a trolley with pram wheels to carry the recording equipment and batteries.

A series of programmes called 'The Pilgrim Road to Rome', including commentaries on an audience with the Pope in the Vatican and the Pope's address to Irish pilgrims at Gandolfo, was produced out of the venture.

Other broadcasts from Rome for the Holy Year were transmitted courtesy of Vatican Radio (and Radiodiffusion Française), including the Pope's declaration of the dogma of the Assumption.

The photograph accompanying this clip shows reporter P.P. O'Reilly and was taken in 1973 for an article in the RTÉ Guide about his television commentary on the 1973 inauguration of President Erskine Childers.

The photographer was Roy Bedell

© RTE Stills Library 2060/093.

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