PAPERROUND: Business along the Border will more easily adapt to the introduction of the euro than the rest of the Republic, the Anglo-Celt predicted this week.
These traders, who have operated in a dual currency zone since 1979, will now have to deal with three different types of tender.
"Many say the flexibility they had shown for the last 22 years would stand to them, and see themselves as being better prepared for the euro debut than firms further from the Border," the paper said.
The Fermanagh Herald noted that, although they are not officially using the new single currency, people just across the Border in the North "cannot but come against it".
Next month, however, the euro will be the only currency in the State.
"The punt," said the Donegal Democrat, "will be nothing more than a flat bottomed boat or the kick of a football."
But the euro will not greatly affect some aspects of the Border's trading environment, the paper said. "The euro/sterling differential adds a fresh twist to financial exchanges from both sides of the Border."
The introduction of the currency was also featured extensively elsewhere in the regional press this week, attracting much editorial comment. Several papers highlighted the contribution a currency makes to national identity.
"Currency is still regarded as a badge of independence, a sign that a country can stand on its own two feet and run its own financial affairs for better or worse," an editorial in the Longford Leader said.
But soon, said the paper, "pounds and pence, for so long part of the vocabulary of Irish people, will disappear forever".
The euro, however, "marks our maturity as a nation that we are not afraid to link our currency with economic giants like France and Germany".
These sentiments were echoed in an editorial in the Laois Nationalist which said the euro's introduction "does not mean we are losing any of our own Irishness".
"In fact, it is a sign we are a confident nation, ready, willing and able to assert our own identity on Europe as an equal partner."
In its comment, the Waterford News & Star said the passing of the punt would be the end of some ordinary sayings - "I bet you a pound", for example - which are "intricately linked to our everyday life".
The paper also observed that many economists said the change was "one of the most financially beneficial we have ever taken", but said some "doomsayers believe that we will be suppressed by stronger economic powers".
This was one argument developed by the Leinster Leader, which said: "For most of us the principal benefits of the new currency will exist largely in the realm of economic theory and macro management."
"So much immediate and direct control of our economic fate has been out of our hands for so long now most of us will hardly notice when the rest of it disappears into the European Central Bank."
Criticisms of the design of some of the new currency featured in the Donegal People's Press.
It quoted an AIB regional director as saying it was a mistake to introduce the one, two and five euro coins which "will become obsolete very fast".
Away from the euro, the Argus interviewed one emigrant who had his "best Christmas ever" back in his native Dundalk.
Mr John Moore, who has directed the newly-released blockbuster film Behind Enemy Lines, told the paper that, although he lives in Los Angeles, he never forgets his background. "I am dead proud of Dundalk and I tell people that."
Meanwhile, the Westmeath Examiner reported on the continuing dispute over the fate of the 13th century remains of Augustinian monks of Mullingar.These remains, which were unearthed four years ago during the development of a supermarket, were "taken away by the National Museum may never be returned to the town, despite local appeals".
"There is now major concern that lack of consideration for the views of local people, like those in Mullingar, and a serious absence of proper communication from bodies like the Heritage Council and the Museum authorities, is inhibiting respect for our dead and for the remains of the Augustinian monks".