Mask-clad Muslims began annual hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's Mecca today, circling Islam's holiest site along socially distanced paths in the smallest pilgrimage in modern history as the Saudi hosts strive to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.
The pilgrimage drew 2.5 million Muslims last year, but in pandemic-shadowed 2020 just 10,000 already living in the kingdom will be allowed in.
Lorraine O'Connor of the Muslim Sisters of Éire said at least a couple of hundred Irish Muslims would have planned to go on the Hajj pilgrimage this year.
Ms O'Connor, who as been a Muslim for 15 years, said that people would travel from all over the world to take part and unless there is a vaccine for Covid-19, she cannot see how the pilgrimage can ever take