A black and white photograph of a dilapidated stone cottage with grass sprouting from its thatched roof appears on the front page of the Connacht Tribune. It is the house on the island of Inis Meain where the playwright John Millington Synge frequently stayed. The paper reports that the house is to be restored with half of the funding from Udaras na Gaeltachta, and is expected to be open to the public next summer. Ms Treasa Ni Fhatharta, a grand-daughter of the couple who owned the cottage in Synge's time, hopes to raise a further £10,000.
Synge, who wrote Riders to the Sea and Playboy of the Western World, was 27 when he first visited Inis Meain at the turn of the century. The paper says he fell "head over heels" in love with the island and its residents.
He was known to sit high on the island's south-facing cliff and "it is believed he got much of his inspiration for his plays as he whiled away the hours looking out towards the Atlantic".
Writers including Roddy Doyle, Patrick McCabe, Maeve Binchy, Jennifer Johnston and Neil Jordan, have made contributions or pledges of support to the project, the paper reports.
Ms Ni Fhatharta, an artist living in London, told the paper the cottage will be simply decorated as it would have been when Synge lived there.
"There will be no high-tech gadgets or audio-visual aids, but it will concentrate on attracting lovers of Synge's work and writers who are in search of their own literary quest."
The Westmeath Examiner has a colour photograph on its front page of a much larger house which is also being dedicated to the arts.
The paper reports that the 135year-old Coolator House in Rosemount has been turned into an artists' colony by its new owners. They are Paris-based Mr John Scanlon, who works in press relations and is described by the paper as "the world's greatest spin doctor", and his wife Julienne, an actress and psychologist.
Echoing the words of William Wordsworth, they say they want to make the house "a place to recollect in tranquillity", says the paper. They have set up a foundation with Seamus Heaney as the head of its board of trustees.
The house will be available to artists on an ad hoc basis free of charge. Three writers and a French visual artist have already immersed themselves in its tranquillity.
Tranquillity is something Waterford residents are getting very little of. The Waterford News and Star reports on demands for "tougher action" against "blackguards" who have vandalised property and terrified elderly residents.
Alderman Pat Hayes says he wants parents to be held accountable if their children hang around on street corners causing trouble and wants vandals to pay for their crimes.
The paper also reports on calls for all cat owners to have their pets neutered to stem the daily flow of ill and unwanted animals to the town's Cats Protection Office.
The call was made by the Waterford Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals after an animal-lover brought to the office a neglected eight-week-old kitten. The office said it cannot accommodate all the unwanted cats in the town.
But pedigree pets are in great demand by "dog nappers", gardai suspect. The Bray People reports that gardai believe seven "prized pooches" stolen from various parts of Co Wicklow may have been sold to dealers, who can get large sums of money for them.
The most expensive dog stolen was a greyhound bitch valued at between £7,000 and £8,000. Others stolen included boxers, Kerry Blues and even Jack Russells.
Gardai in the county are also searching for vandals responsible for a graffito on the east wall of Greystones harbour. It is believed the slogan, which calls for a ban on tangle-net fishing, was the work of anglers angry that their sport is being destroyed.
Local anglers have complained that tangle net-fishing is destroying local stocks. But one of them, Mr Michael Kunz, condemned the graffito.
He told the paper that many shore and boat anglers were "furious" that their sport was threatened by tanglenet fishing off the coastline.
In the orchard county of Armagh, thoughts are turning to harvest time. The Armagh Observer carries an article advising Bramley apple pickers how to handle the fruit.
"Handle apples as you would eggs," it says. "People with large hands and/or long fingers may eventually be able to remove two apples at a time per hand. This practice should not be encouraged until they master picking individual fruits in a bruise-free manner."
There are rich pickings of a different kind in Co Monaghan. The Anglo-Celt reports that rich deposits of gold have been found near Clontibret. The find was made in part of a rock formation called the Longford-Down Massif, which extends into Scotland and has been previously mined.
With the possibility of a full-scale mining operation on the area, the paper reports that the county "could now be in line for a 20th century gold rush".
