The prior provincial of the Augustinian community in Ireland, Fr John Hennebry has insisted Fr Iggy O’Donovan is “not under any penalty or punishment”, as he begins a year-long sabbatical in Limerick.

An outspoken priest has hit out at intolerant and extreme right-wingers in the Church and questioned why priests like Fr Tony Flannery were being “persecuted with a zeal that is as pathological as the paranoia that feeds it”.