The Kerryman is planning to run a front-page editorial next week calling on readers to vote Yes in the referendum on the Belfast Agreement.
The paper strongly supports the deal. Its editor, Gerard Colleran, says that both the Kerryman and its associated newspaper, the Corkman, will endorse it "and without equivocation be recommending its acceptance to readers. This referendum is a historic opportunity for all the people of Ireland to vote for peace, for the end of strife, conflict and mayhem."
The Kerryman, which circulates in Co Kerry and north Co Cork, has a circulation of 35,300. Since Mr Colleran became editor three years ago, it has increased sales by over 2,000 copies a week and is the most recognised sounding-board for opinion in the south-west outside Cork.
Mr Colleran says there has been unanimous public support for the agreement in his circulation area. He believes that on polling day the issue in Kerry will not be whether the electorate approves the agreement: rather it will be the extent of approval.
"The fact that Sinn Fein will be weighing in behind the Yes campaign means that there is simply no contest - and this, in a very real way, may in fact depress the turnout, as many will regard proposed changes as certain to be accepted.
"In Kerry and north Cork, there is an enormous goodwill among ordinary people for the people in Northern Ireland. The hope must be that this will be translated in a positive decision to vote in support of the peace deal on May 22nd."
He said the Irish people had been fulminating on the issue of consent for decades. "Consent is a principle which cuts to the heart of this agreement. The only alternative to consent is coercion, and that can and would most certainly lead to disaster on a scale we could not even begin to contemplate.
"For those who believe, as I do, that coercion is neither possible nor desirable even if it were possible, the changes to Articles 2 and 3 are essential.
"From a nationalist viewpoint, the `consent' principle also applies. Nationalist consent is required for the internal government of Northern Ireland, in terms of the Northern `government' which will be formed, and also in crucial areas such as policing.
"That's not to say that there's nothing in the agreement which causes concern. The issue of prisoner releases and the decommissioning of weapons are concerns."
Mr Colleran said there was a sense in the south-west that "the war is over". However, this was not to say that militants on the margins would not continue to maim and murder.