An Irish band that has been stranded on board a cruise ship for four weeks is hoping it can disembark in eastern Australia despite some local opposition.
The Ruby Princess cruise ship, owned by Carnival Corp, has been docked at Port Kembla in New South Wales and is linked to many of the deaths associated with the virus in Australia.
There are five Irish people among the crew still on the ship, four members of the band Emerald Tide and an engineer. Musician Killian Shannon boarded the ship with his band for a four-month tour on 4 December. "Everything was plain sailing.
We were very popular on board. We're the first Irish band to work for Princess Cruises and it's been quite successful," he said The idea was to appeal to cruise passengers