Louth man on hunger strike after hearing local church to close

A man has gone on hunger strike in an effort to stop the closure of his church in Co Louth.

Declan Hanratty is staging a sit-in since Sunday at the Dominican Church in Drogheda, which is set to close its doors soon.

Mr Hanratty has been the sacristan at the Co Louth church for 10 years and his wife Rita says he is continuing to carry out his normal duties at the church during his hunger strike.

She says he decided to protest when he saw the reaction of the parishioners to news of the closure over the weekend.

"There were grown men crying and saying this cannot happen, we cannot let them away with this, and so many people have kicked up a stink," she said.

She added: "All in all, at the minute, we have over 12,000 [petition] signatures."