`Dreary, depressing and dull", Derry is a "third-rate city" that "looks best from Donegal". That was the view of Finbar O'Kane of Garvagh, Co Derry, in his letter to the editor of the Derry Journal. His explanation: no aesthetic sense and thus no moral sense. A colourless, odourless contagion of depression emanates from the Foyle, the Faughan, the Bann, the Braid and the Lagan, "the mother of all contaminated rivers leading to the underworld of the past from which we've just emerged", he wrote.
"Tacky Westmeath placenames" inspired by New York's Central Park and the Canary Islands were criticised by the Westmeath Examiner. During the construction boom in Mullingar and Westmeath, builders and local authorities have "gone mad" on using place-names unconnected in any way to the history or topography of the countryside.
For example, a new housing estate next to an old famine road was named "Sherwood Park" by the local authority. Then there were the "fake" Irish placenames like Abbeylands and Ashleigh, bound to confuse future generations of Irish historians, it believed. "The new place-names we give to our streets and housing estates in Westmeath say something about us and our communities and how we see ourselves," asserted the Examiner.
The Meath Chronicle commented on the "Blackspots of Meath" photography competition, organised by the Meath branch of An Taisce, the conservation group. "Meath is certainly not alone in suffering the scourge of litter, but it is an inarguable fact that the county would figure prominently in any league table of litter blackspots," the Chronicle argued.
A section of the population of Co Meath showed "scant regard for its appearance and for the people who frequent its many places of natural beauty by depositing their litter without a care in the world, whether it be household waste, old cars or dead sheep," it said.
The Clare Champion highlighted concerns that more than 40 "obtrusive" wind-farms would "blow away tourists", if allowed to go ahead.
While proponents of wind-farms insist that theirs is a clean form of renewable energy, a Kilmaley action group believe "wind power is unreliable, uncontrollable and unpredictable", it said. The Sligo Champion warned that "ambitious proposals for the creation of a £100 billion futuristic city in the west of Ireland have been branded as a threat which could destroy the fabric of Connacht counties."
The "monster" city would "hoover up" the population of surrounding counties, leading to the demise of towns and villages outside its environs, said Ms Marian Harkin, chairwoman of the Council for the West.
"Lock up your daughters. . .or they'll be fighting!" urged the Donegal Democrat.
"It was bad enough when they started drinking pints and playing Gaelic football but now it appears the young Donegal female of today isn't content to conform to any of the stereotypical imagery associated with the fairer sex," commented Connie Duffy. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for equality and all that but when going out on the tear literally means pulling someone's head off you got to draw the line somewhere.
"The new tough `ladettes' are literally brawling beauties. . .and vicious vixens, and they're striking the fear of God into all who get in their way," she stated.
Gardai have spotted the trend. She added: "According to Sgt Tom McMenamin this week the number of females involved in assault cases nearly outnumbered the males at the moment."
Teenagers as young as 14 were acting as couriers for drug-dealers in Carlow town, said the Nationalist and Leinster Times. Cannabis resin and ecstasy were the main drugs and combined with alcohol were "a recipe for disaster" for the mostly 16-plus age group that use them, said Garda Supt Maurice Regan.
Missiles were hurled at gardai on Achill Island before 30 people were arrested during "mayhem" there, said the Connaught Telegraph. It was "some of the worst public disorder ever seen in the area".
Three people in their 70s and 80s were locked up in a pub raid in Fethard while the son of the house was away at the Galway Races, reported the Nationalist and Munster Advertiser. Three males with local accents broke into the pub at 2.10 a.m. and put the Burke family through a "frightening ordeal, although they did not produce weapons and did not threaten the Burke family with violence".
Another family fared worse in what the Connacht Tribune described as a "horror attack" in which the family were severely beaten by car thieves at their house in Ballinboyle. Shortly before 3 a.m. the family heard someone interfering with their car outside. When they approached the thieves, they were savagely attacked.