They broke restrictions and went over the 5km exorcise limit.

Next up in 2021 headline bingo we have an absolutely unholy mess.

According to The Irish Examiner, two nuns who broke COVID guidelines to attend an exorcism of the Dáil in December have raised over €77,000 via crowdfunding after being ordered to leave a compound in West Cork.

On December 8 last year, Mother Irene Gibson and Sister Anne Marie attended an exorcism when travelling to another county was prohibited.

Despite outdoor gatherings being limited to 15 people, around 70 people attended the event and during the event Father Giacomo Ballini said, “no human power can take away the right to say Mass”.

It comes after Mother Irene Gibson set up a religious retreat in 2016 and was subsequently convicted of breaching planning regulations in 2019.

A member of “the Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus”, Mother Gibson was ordered to leave the compound she inhabited in at Corran South by next June.

The event attracted around 70 attendees despite outdoor gatherings at the time being limited to 15.

The pair’s GoFundMe page states, “We are a small* community of Carmelite Nuns faithful to the unchanging Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.  We spend our life in unceasing prayer and penance for the salvation of souls and to make atonement for the sins of mankind including of course our own shortcomings.”

“We are zealously faithful to the True Catholic Faith according to Holy Tradition prior to Vatican II.”

The pair now have enough to purchase a property and took to their GoFundMe page to thank contributors, saying:

“Praised be Jesus Christ! We have good news to share with you all! Your outstanding charity toward our needs has finally made it possible for us to purchase some property.”

“How has this been possible when the children of darkness have done their utmost to try and crush us? By spreading lies on local West Cork newspapers, on social media, and filing complaints about our fundraising campaign to local authorities, they have tried to prevent you, our benefactors, from helping us achieve our goal. Yet as Holy Scripture tells us, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. Cf. John 1:5. No matter how deep the darkness, it is never able to extinguish a light.”

A quick glance at their donations shows amounts ranging from €20 to over €1000.