With infection rates shooting up across the North and in neighbouring bordering counties, tighter lockdown restrictions were brought in all nine counties of Ulster last week, with Stormont announcing a four week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown and the Dublin government raising Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan to Level 4 in its Covid restrictions scale.

In a statement issued last week after both new sets of restrictions were announced, Bishop Duffy said: “This is a very trying time for people, particularly after so many have made such tremendous efforts to comply with regulations and to provide for the common good and the public health of all.

As Bishop of a diocese that is divided by the border, I am very aware of the fear, frustration and inconvenience that people are experiencing.”

Bishop Duffy noted the regulations for religious ceremonies differed now on either side of the border, meaning those in Fermanagh could still go to Mass but those in Cavan, for example, could not.