Eighty-two per cent of Kerry people believe the Bishop of Kerry, Dr William Murphy, should apologise on behalf of his diocese to the sex abuse victims of convicted paedophile priest John Brosnan, according to a poll carried out by the Kerryman. The newspaper has been vigorously pursuing the issue over the past few weeks.

It faxed the poll results to the diocese, only to be told that Dr Murphy did not see them as he was on "parish visitations" and uncontactable. Almost four out of every five people in the diocese of Kerry have had their faith in the clergy shaken by the recent sex abuse cases, the poll shows.

The Clare Champion said the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, had committed the diocese to an open and co-operative approach to the public and civil authorities in investigating claims of sex abuse against the clergy. In a statement read at Masses, Dr Walsh said "no criminal charge would be made against a local priest after a full investigation of a serious allegation made against him earlier this year". The priest is returning to his ministry after a voluntary leave of absence.

Sixty per cent of council housing applicants are single parents, said the Westmeath Examiner. "The notion that getting pregnant outside wedlock is a quick way to get a council house in Westmeath was knocked at a meeting of Westmeath county council," said the newspaper. Two Moate councillors, Mr Joe Whelan and Mr Stephen Price, "both declared that any young person who gets pregnant to get a council house is on the road to poverty".

Landowners in Ardpatrick, Co Limerick, have declared war on hunting, following five hours of tension during a Sunday meet. The trouble began when up to 40 members of the County Limerick Farmers' Hunt - a breakaway group from the County Hunt - arrived in Ardpatrick for the meet, despite stringent objections from landowners, said the Limerick Leader.

Most landowners had advertised in the Leader the fact that their lands were preserved and they had also erected notices indicating that trespassers were not allowed. Several landowners claimed they had told the hunt not to trespass on their lands but had been defied. Fences were knocked and gates that had been tied were opened, they said. One farmer said he had had to put his tractor across a gate to keep the hunt out.

The farmers' hunt "saw no confrontations" and said they had repaired any broken ditches.

Meningitis was terrifying parents in the south-west of the country. "Fear swept through Killaloe this week as meningitis struck for the third time," said the Limerick Leader. A boy's life was saved when he went to hospital for treatment of a sports injury and aroused doctor's suspicions because he seemed generally unwell. A test for meningitis proved positive.

"Meningitis scare sweeps East Clare," said the Clare Champion. A local boys' primary school was closed for the second time in two months because a pupil had meningococcal septicaemia. The latest scare involved a cousin and classmate of a seven-year-old boy who died from bacterial meningitis in October. His was the second death from the disease in two years. "It calls for absolute vigilance from our point of view and from every parent's point of view," warned Dr Paschal Carmody, the GP who treated both boys.

The reality that floods in Clonmel are a chronic situation is sinking in - along with everything else in Clonmel. The Nationalist and Munster Advertiser reported that South Tipperary County Council had been forced to abandon its plans for a new £1.2 million museum on Suir Island. "The plan to use the new museum as a showpiece on a Suir Island millennium project has been scrapped because of the fear the county's priceless collection of historical artefacts could be destroyed by flood waters," it added.

The Argus said that a Dundalk resident was left with a virtual oil well in his garden after thieves cut the burner from his central heating boiler, allowing 200 gallons of oil to seep into the soil and under a patio causing damage estimated at £10,000. It was not the first house to be targeted by the burner thieves, who are so adept at removing the burners that they can complete the task in minutes, even while the family is going about normal business in their homes. The burners can cost more than £200 new, but can be sold for up to £70, said a Garda spokesman.

Dog owners in Wexford are to face £25 on-the-spot fines when their dogs defecate on streets and footpaths, said the Wexford People. Already fine books are being printed under the corporation's new litter management plan and residents are having leaflets put on their cars to ensure they know that fouling footpaths will bring them foul of the law, which leaves only one problem: who's going to tell the dogs?