What is going on in Co Kildare? The Leinster Leader feared a "bloodbath" as 1,000 Travellers "hold Sallins to ransom". Two weeks ago a "massive convoy" of 200 caravans "invaded" the village, so that residents are now "literally terrified".
Also on the front page, the Leader reported a racist assault by a group of schoolboys in broad daylight on a "black" doctor in Naas, witnessed by a county councillor as she collected her child from school.
Yet another front-page story stated that youths slashed a military policeman's face on the Curragh, which is "fast becoming a no-go zone". And in its fourth strong front-page piece, it described "families living in squalor" in the "Flats from Hell", where mothers with young children are living in tiny, mouldy one-bedroom flats heated only by open fires.
A fifth story in the Leinster Leader described a "disturbing" and "alarming" increase in spiralling debt for many households in Co Kildare.
The Munster Express told of how a woman was mugged by a "heartless thief" who broke her finger - all for £4. Meanwhile, the criminal behaviour of young thugs has driven Duffy's Circus out of Carrick-on-Suir for good. The fact the local Garda station is only 50 yards away proved no deterrent to the culprits, who aimed laser beams at the eyes of animals and threw eggs while a show was under way. "Businesses count cost of travellers' invasion", stated the Waterford News & Star. The owner of a business park which has become a camp for 30 Traveller vehicles has applied for an injunction to force the Travellers to leave.
Meanwhile, business on the estate has effectively shut down. "Normal trade has been thrown into disarray at the National Car Test Centre, while companies such as Crosbie Europe and Waterford Transmission Services are also counting the cost of the three-week encampment," stated the newspaper.
In Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, a 30-year-old English registered paedophile is helping gardai with their inquiries into an alleged sexual assault on a teenaged girl at a hostel, revealed the Wexford People. "Worried locals in Kilmore Quay and the surrounding villages are said to be absolutely horrified after discovering the convicted paedophile was living in their area," it stated.
THE Westmeath Examiner described mounting concern over street violence following the stabbing of a 21-year-old man in the face in a "horrific" unprovoked attack. The stabbing occurred as the young man was escorting his girlfriend to her home.
"When school was torture - just ten years ago", ran the headline of the Nationalist and Leinster Times's interview with a Carlow woman who suffered "horrific mental and physical torture" at the hands of a Co Carlow school teacher who beat her daily with a stick. "A litany of violent beatings, cruel taunts and crippling criticism became a regular routine for the young girl, who attempted suicide at just 13 (years old) as a result," wrote Suzanne Pender.
"From the tender age of nine years old, the Co Carlow child was labelled daily as stupid, dirty and a recurring troublemaker by her teacher, who brutally chipped away at the young girl's self-esteem."
The girl claimed she wrote a letter to the parish priest at the end of 5th class telling him what the teacher was doing, but the priest didn't do anything about it.
"Furious" is how the Meath Chronicle described the reaction of the Meath Irish Countrywomen's Association to the suspension of mammography services at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan. The ICA objects to a plan to locate a regional breast unit for the northeastern counties in Drogheda, and until that happens 100 Meath women on a waiting list are being seen at the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin. Meanwhile, a mobile Breast-Check screening programme for healthy women aged 50-64 is to be introduced in Navan.
"Breast cancer row set to erupt", warned the Leinster Express, concerning a controversy over the location of cancer treatment services in the midlands. A report on breast cancer services recommends that a breast unit be located in Tullamore General Hospital, the designated regional cancer centre. "Any decision to move breast cancer services to Tullamore is certain to be a political bombshell in Laois," stated the newspaper.
"Blooming vandals" in Navan prompted the Meath Chronicle to state that "Motorists travelling into Navan on the Dublin Road could be forgiven for imagining that they had overshot their destination by 40 miles, following a methodical bit of floral vandalism carried out to the word `Navan' on one of the main entry routes to the town.
"The green-fingered perpetrator(s) skillfully excised the second downline of the opening N and altered the town's name to that of Niall Toibin's much-beloved county."