If you thought the World Cup was the most important sporting event of the summer then you haven't been reading the Leinster Leader, still bullish after Kildare's defeat of Dublin in the provincial senior football championship.
"It is not an exaggeration to suggest that everything that is good in sport and sports participation was vindicated by Kildare's win," read the paper's editorial, with the kind of grace in victory one would expect after a 26-year losing streak. While commercialism and drug abuse were still rampant in sport, it reminded us "there remains a Corinthian ideal, magnificently reflected by the Kildare team".
Also leading the rearguard action against France '98 was the Roscommon Champion whose chief columnist said: "World's greatest tournament or not, hurling/Gaelic games is the greatest spectacle of all." He reserved the most scorn for the World Cup's TV panellists, sharing the view of a Meath Chronicle reader who wrote that there was "far too much idle chat . . . a lot of hot air accompanied by nonsensical wiggles and squiggles".
If it's less talk you want, perhaps Fianna Fail's two Longford-Roscommon TDs would make better panellists as, according to party colleague Senator John Connor, they sit in the Dail "like a pair of Trappist monks with vows of silence".
He was responding in the Roscommon Champion to a Sunday newspaper survey which showed one local Fianna Fail TD spoke for three-quarters of a minute in the chamber last year, while the other never spoke at all. Mr Connor said the revelation was "utterly amazing, after all the table-thumping and shouting" in the run-up to the last general election.
Elsewhere in the paper, the leader-writer had nicer things to say about the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, who "has shown considerable initiative and some courage" in proposing a new plan for work-shy social welfare recipients. Sentiments echoed by the Southern Star, which said in its editorial: "If we have so much spare labour and so many employment vacancies, it makes no sense for the State to be `doling' out many, many millions to those who prefer to exploit the `layabout-land' largesse".
Look no further than Shannonside, or Hospital to be precise, to find evidence of such labour shortages. The Limerick Leader reports that the construction of a new multi-million-pound school has been delayed because of the unavailability of building staff.
In contrast, another hospital, University College in Galway, is suffering from too much construction. The Connacht Tribune reports that surgeons have lodged an official complaint because of the distraction caused by building work. "How can a sensitive operation requiring the greatest degree of concentration and accuracy be carried out when the noise of drilling can be heard throughout the theatre?" asked one exasperated staff member.
Manpower shortages in the church attracted the attention of the Clare Champion, which welcomed a number of initiatives introduced by the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, aimed at increasing the involvement of the laity in parishes where vocations have dropped off.
Its editorial, in keeping with the sporting air around at present, remarked: "Those Catholics who've been champing at the bit for the last quarter-century may not get an opportunity to gallop full steam ahead, but they will, at least, be allowed proceed at a cautious trot. The reins will still be in the hands of the clergy, but it may be that once over the initial hurdles, church bosses will finally recognise the innate strengths of a congregation which, despite all the rebuffs, still cares enough to want to get involved."
The Westmeath Examiner also praised a clergyman in its editorial. In this case, a Father Andy Farrell of Raharney, who warned of a malaise in society which has encouraged the emergence and sometimes tolerance of drink and drug abuse. The theme is taken up by the Longford Leader, which calls for parents and secondary schools to do more to discourage under-age drinking.
Finally, the same paper bade a fond farewell to Longford County Council's senior planning officer, Mr Mel McCormack, who retires this week after 40 years with the local authority.
Councillors paid tribute to the no-nonsense planning boss and part-time sports fan, who "never had any time" for the posturing and bluster of local politics. The secret of success, he said succinctly, was to "remember that there are about 10 answers to every question, and every one of the 10 is right."
Now, he sounds like the sort of TV panellist we could do with.
