Weekend Masses cancelled in Border area due to disease fears

Weekend Masses in the Louth-Armagh Border area have been cancelled, and Catholic bishops have been asked to review the situation elsewhere as the foot-and-mouth crisis forces a shutdown of normal life in Ireland.

The National Boat Show scheduled for next week at the RDS in Dublin joined the growing list of events cancelled, while Dublin Chamber of Commerce said the loss of the St Patrick's Day festival could cost the city £15 million.

In a letter to priests in his archdiocese last night, the Archbishop of Armagh announced cancellation of Masses in 13 churches in the exclusion zone surrounding the farm where the North's first case of foot-and-mouth was confirmed on Thursday.

In this and a separate letter to bishops, Dr Sean Brady said that, where it was considered necessary to cancel services, parishioners were excused from Sunday obligation and should not travel to adjoining parishes for Mass.

Meanwhile, the Licensed Vintners' Association urged rural pubs to provide disinfectant mats, and the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, told An Post to adopt a "no mat, no mail" policy for farm deliveries.

In Longford a District Court judge urged nightclubs to close for a week. Judge John Neilan said if clubs stayed open, it would be "an extraordinary show of greed and avarice".

As air travellers begin to heed Government calls not to travel to the UK, both Aer Lingus and British Airways announced they would give vouchers or refunds or allow re-booking by customers, even on restricted tickets, which had been cancelled because of the crisis.

However, Ryanair refused to make a similar move, saying jobs could be at risk. With today's Cardiff rugby match cancelled, the company said that on one Bristol flight yesterday only 15 of 130 paid passengers turned up.

With Irish racing trainers not travelling to the Cheltenham Festival, there was some good news for punters when the Paddy Power bookmakers' chain announced it would refund bets on horses, British as well as Irish, withdrawn because of foot-and-mouth fears.

A spokesman said the gesture would cost "hundreds of thousands of pounds".

Meanwhile, as the Six Nations rugby championship continues today in Ireland's absence, tournament organisers admitted "serious uncertainty" about remaining matches.

The Wales-Ireland game, originally fixed for this weekend, has been provisionally rescheduled to April 29th.