POPE Francis is set to travel to Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastical capital, when he visits Ireland in August 2018.
There was strong speculation on Monday night that the pontiff will visit the city's Catholic and Anglican cathedrals and hold an open-air Mass.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed a long-awaited papal trip to Ireland after meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican.
It is expected he will travel north as part of his itinerary and among venues suggested for an open-air Mass has been Armagh's Athletic GAA grounds.
However, SDLP councillor Thomas O'Hanlon said on Monday that the venue "would need to be able to accommodate the tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands of people who would want to attend".
"We may have to look at a green-field site on the edge of the city," he said.
Pope John Paul II had planned to visit Armagh during the last papal visit to Ireland in 1979 but did not end up crossing the border following the murders of Lord Mountbatten in Co Sligo and 18 British soldiers outside Warrenpoint, Co Down.
Instead, he delivered his message of peace from Drogheda, Co Louth.
The scheduled visit to Ireland coincides with the World Meeting of Families being held in Dublin in almost two years' time.
Since its inception in 1994, there has only been one occasion when the pontiff did not attend the meeting.
Archbishop Eamon Martin said it will be "an important gift from Pope Francis to the Irish Church and the Church globally".
The Vatican has yet to confirm the Ireland trip as it's understood it does not confirm papal visits until six months before they are due to take place.
In an earlier briefing on the World Meeting of Families, the Vatican said the Pope had expressed his desire to visit Ireland and such a visit would bring great joy to Irish Catholics and others.
But it added that given the age of Pope Francis, who turns 80 next month, a visit in 2018 would have a more restricted programme than that of Pope John Paul II in 1979.
Mr Kenny was accompanied on Monday by his wife Fionnuala, Irish Ambassador to the Holy See Emma Madigan, and officials including Mr Kenny's chief of staff Mark Kennelly.
