It's a tiny, almost-formed figure, bearing a striking resemblance to ET - in a jam-jar. The photograph is at the top of page 2 of the Donegal Democrat illustrating a story from the north-west's X-files.
Following a reported discovery, by a Sligo-based butcher, of an "alien foetus near Finner camp in Bundoran", there has apparently been lively local debate as to whether the story is true.
As the Donegal Democrat reports, in its follow-up to a story originally reported in the Daily Mirror. Sligo man, Gerry Condron, was driving towards Ballyshannon last November when "he saw a flash of light overhead and then smoke coming from a field about 200 yards past the perimeter of Finner Camp".
He went to investigate and came upon the "foetus" covered in soot and smoke. Having brought it to local gardai who told him it was probably a rabbit, he conveyed his discovery to a lab in Belfast which carried out tests and marked the specimen "alien embryo", we are told.
The paper says Mr Condron was on holiday and unavailable for comment, that Bundoran gardai could not comment and the Daily Mirror journalist had been unable to ascertain who carried out the scientific tests.
From one mysterious life-form to another.
The elections may be over but for political-party faithfuls the politicking never ceases, not even for a family holiday. The Connacht Tribune tells that a Fianna Fail member of Galway County Council, Michael Regan, was on Friday preparing to dash home from holiday in Majorca.
Leaving his wife and two daughters behind, the panic was prompted by a need to be in Galway for a "vital vote" which would see Fianna Fail regain control of the council for the first time since 1991.
His vote was needed if the newly-won Fianna Fail majority of 16 to 14 was to deliver the chair to his party. Without him the party was facing a 15-15 tie, and the name of the new chairman would have to be drawn from a hat.
Fianna Fail comrades in Kerry look set to lose one of their number and in so doing they may also lose their chances of ruling Kerry County Council for the next five years.
The Kerryman reports that Senator Dan Kiely may quit the party, such is his fury with Fianna Fail for striking a deal with the father-and-son HealyRae team. The deal, says the paper, "would effectively sideline himself [Kiely] and his fellow North Kerry councillors from the top jobs on Kerry County Council".
Fianna Fail won 12 seats in the local elections and so needs the support of councillors Jackie and his son, Michael Healy-Rae if they are to win the chair. As the paper tells it, the deal leaves no seat on the Southern Health Board for any of the North Kerry Fianna Fail councillors. Nor would any hold the council chair over the next five years.
The Fianna Fail Healy-Rae deal had been negotiated over weeks, but without Kiely the party would not have the control it seeks, even with the HealyRaes.
In Wexford, the outgoing mayor said, at the mayoral election, that Wexford was a "dirty" town.
The Wexford People reports that Cllr Nolan spoke of the town's streets and said: "Let's not be afraid to say it, they're dirty." To applause he also highlighted "the growing incidence of unruly neighbours in corporation housing estates". Unruly neighbours, we are told, can be recognised by their habit of disturbing people "who do a day's work" with "music or televisions blaring until the early hours of the morning".
Meanwhile, cats and dogs are dying. The Westmeath In- dependent has as its front-page story the news that "Dogs are victims of Lough Ree pollution at Portlick".
A stretch of the water at Portlick has been declared unsafe because of an unprecedentedly high level of growth of a poisonous algae. Ingestion of the algae has killed two dogs, according to Westmeath County Council, and bathing has been banned at the stretch of the lake.
In Wexford cats have been suffering "slow, agonisingly painful" deaths. According to the Wexford People four cats in the Tagoat area have been poisoned over the past fortnight, having been fed anti-freeze.
According to the Tipperary Star security preparations for the annual summer solstice celebrations at Derrynaflan Bog were rigorously implemented this year. In anticipation of hordes of New Age Travellers, a massive Garda operation and an exclusion order against bog-bound revellers were ordered. But as the paper tells: "This year nobody turned up . . . No New Age Travellers, no loud music, no drink, drugs and rock'n'roll."
To quote Insp Bernard O'Neill, the garda operation "was a very successful one".
The Sligo Champion has a story of a young man who has 27 driving offences under the Road Traffic Acts. He was clocked recently driving at 79 m.p.h. in a 30 m.p.h. zone. Mr Johnny Lynch of Cranmore appeared before Sligo Court when his solicitor said where the incident happened was a wide stretch of road and that most drivers tended to increase speed there. He said also his client hopes to go into the taxi business.
