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Firefighters struggled to fight a church fire without proper water pressure in the village of Louth yesterday. The blaze left the 110- year-old church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which had a preservation order on it, as a shell.

A water tanker was brought in to supplement the local supply but county councillor Mr Jim Lennon, who lives in the village and watched the attempt to bring it under control, blamed the water supply. "They couldn't get the water, the fire brigades were all here and were left helpless; there was no pressure, there were hydrants but the pressure wouldn't be good enough," he said.