Court reports in the regional newspapers reveal much about everyday antisocial behaviour in modern Ireland. The Gorey Guardian reports a case where "a young motorist who overtook a Garda car on a continuous white line and then drove at speeds up to 99 miles an hour while being pursued" was before Gorey court. He was fined £500.
The Kilkenny People reports: "A man who shouted `fascists' at gardai was fined £100 at Thomastown court." He was fined "for being so drunk that he might endanger himself or others".
The Nenagh Guardian reports: "A woman kicked out at a Garda sergeant while being put in the patrol car. She was arrested and put in handcuffs. She was very abusive and violent and kicked out and made contact with Sgt Walsh" a number of times. A fine of £200 was imposed.
The Munster Express says: "Abusive remarks such as `fat boys' and `bastards' which were made by a Dublin man to gardai landed him in the police cells of Waterford Garda station." Fines totalling £220 were imposed.
Sport plays a major part in regional newspaper coverage and the victories of Kilkenny in hurling and Sligo in football feature prominently in the local papers. Kilkenny's facile victory in Leinster is celebrated in style and in colour in the Kilkenny People.
The report by John Knox says: "The finish was like a race between a Mini and a Ferrari with Mr Bean and Michael Schumacher as the respective drivers."
In its "Big Match Special" the Sligo Champion celebrates the team's narrow victory over Kildare. The team's manager, Peter Ford, is copiously quoted and the headline over the match report, by Jim Gray, declares: "Ford's Fiesta".
Litter and the disposal of rubbish is also a constant topic. The Leitrim Observer devotes considerable space to the problem under a headline which says: "They say a picture is worth 1,000 words - need we say any more." The paper backs this idea up with several photographs which show the scenes which "demonstrate the disgraceful littering of a residential area which occurred when a number of caravans parked on the Old Dublin road, just off the Mohill crossroads, left the area".
The report says: "Old suites of furniture, bicycles and bags of rubbish were all left on the side of the road when the caravans left the area." There is a picture by Willie Donnellan of a three-piece suite which was left at the roadside.
The Drogheda Independent leads its front page with the news that "The Drogheda Residents Against Bin Charges and Privatisation group have reacted angrily to a new report that proposes local householders should pay an additional £60 yearly charge for their bin collection."
The editorial writers are concerned with many issues. The Donegal People's Press turns its attention to the question of jobs. It says: "Recent good news on the jobs front, mainly in the Letterkenny area, has, unfortunately, been countered by job losses, most notably the closure of the Herdmans clothing factory in Ballybofey with the loss of 59 full-time and 28 temporary staff".
The editorial runs side by side with the report that the north-west branch of the Irish Business Employers Confederation (IBEC) "has joined the condemnation of An Bord Pleanala's rejection of planning permission to erect a 110kV power line in west Donegal. It has also predicted that it will have major implications for the economic and industrial development in the west of the county."
The editorial writer in the Waterford News & Star says: "The move by the Government to effectively ban political opinion polls in the run-up to an election is the classic case of shooting the messenger".