Baptisms, marriages and individual confession will not be held in the diocese of Clogher, it was announced on Saturday, becoming the first Irish diocese to institute such a ban.

Bishop Larry Duffy said he was “saddened to have to take this course of action, but in the prevailing circumstances”, he had no other option. Funeral masses were also banned.

The stricture stands in contrast to the measures ordered by the Italian State on Saturday which said that weddings and baptisms are permitted for tightly limited groups. On weddings, the note from the country’s Interior Ministry said, “Where the rite takes place just in the presence of the celebrants, the couple and their witnesses, and prescriptions regarding distance among participants are respected, it’s not to be considered among the prohibited cases.”