Coronavirus: Trainee priest treating patients during crisis

Belfast man Christopher Gault left medicine to join the priesthood in 2014.

With the outbreak of coronavirus, he returned to work as a doctor for six weeks on the front line in Belfast’s Mater hospital.

"There were, of course, patients who lost their lives and there was physical and spiritual suffering during this crisis," said the trainee Dominican.

"The hardest part about being a doctor is accepting that a patient is at the end of their life and there’s nothing more we can do."

Br Christopher added: “But how people reacted was immensely inspiring, I remember nurses who, after their shift ended, were sitting for hours with patients who couldn’t be visited by their families."

He is now back in Dublin continuing his studies as part of the Dominican Order.

Video journalist: Niall McCracken