Community devastated by foot-and-mouth news

News that foot-and-mouth had spread into Ireland devastated the community clustered around the Co Louth border with Northern Ireland - and sounded alarm bells nationwide.

Michael Rice, the owner of the farm caught up in the drama, said he was in "a state of shock" over what had happened, and too upset to say any more.

Another farmer, based close to the address where the disease was confirmed, said the development had halted a period of increasing optimism that the area had evaded the virus.

Tillage and cattle farmer David Kearney reported: "I am about six or seven miles away on the Cooley peninsula and have been in a restricted area since the outbreak at Meigh, across the border in Co Armagh.

"We had felt we were only a week or so away from being out of danger, and this has come as a shot out of the blue. I have more than 200 cattle here and my gut feeling is that they will have to be slaughtered.

"We have been on a bit of a roller coaster since the Meigh outbreak and recently every day had seemed a step away from it. We had hoped the sheep involved today had been affected by nitrogen rather than foot-and-mouth."

Mr Kearney said if told his herd would have to be destroyed, he would understand the position. "You would have to understand. What else can you do?

"You are a victim of circumstance and have to face up to it.

"If they can restrict this to the Cooley peninsular, it will be fantastic."

Niall Connolly, who runs an equestrian centre yards from the border at Ravensdale, Co Louth, commented: "I really can’t say just how I feel. The last few weeks have been a disaster, so I can only imagine what the next few months will be like.

"My income has been absolutely decimated. It’s just so disappointing. Over the past week or 10 days we had such a sense of hope.

"It’s just bitterly disappointing to find that it is here. It’s such a shame."

Local Irish Farmers Association representative Raymond O’Malley, chairman of the organisation in Co Louth, said: "There is a huge degree of shock here. We thought we could beat this one after three weeks. But we are where we are.

"But we have to get over the initial shock and plan our way forward. Pain will be suffered by many people. We are looking at a very bleak prospect."