Amid rumours that Ballinspittle's "moving statue" of the Blessed Virgin is moving again, the Roscommon Champion reports on recent "miracle cures" at a holy well in Tulsk. The paper says a series of miracle cures have been attributed to the healing properties of the Ogulla well, off the Castlerea road, which is believed to have been blessed by St Patrick.
"People claim they have been cured of everything from cancer and arthritis to eye sores, warts and sore limbs," said Mrs Sylvia Furey who lives near the well and looks after it voluntarily.
People cured within the past fortnight include a man with a lump over one eye who had been told he would have to get it surgically removed and a man with arthritis, said Mrs Furey.
The well, which takes its name from the sixth-century saint, OighGhiolla, attracts hundreds of pilgrims every year.
The domestic water supply to the Wicklow villages of Glendalough and Laragh is not so charmed. The Wicklow People reports that residents and business people are "seeing red" after their water turned brown.
Residents have been forced to wash in and drink the brown-coloured water for six weeks and businesses are worried about the impact on tourism, according to the paper.
In some areas there has been no water at all and a hairdresser in Laragh has had to close her shop.
"Even before the water stopped coming I was getting this mucky brown water. I have spent a fortune on treatment for people's hair because it was like straw because of the water," Ms Christine Wolohan from Christine's Hair Studio told the paper.
One restaurant-owner said he had to apologise continually to tourists for the water colour which has forced him to serve drinks with brown ice-cubes in them.
The county secretary, Mr Brian Doyle, said the council was doing all in its power to alleviate the situation and stressed that the water was safe to drink. He said the area's water was taken from a local river which became discoloured following recent heavy rain.
Parents deliberating about names for their newborn children may be interested to know that Shannon and Ryan are the top monikers in the North.
The Derry Journal reports that boys' names like Brian, Alan, Colin and Richard are losing out to the likes of Jordan, Nathan and Dylan in the popularity stakes. For girls, Mary, Joanne and Karen are old-hat, while Lauren, Emma and Megan are fashionable.
The information comes from the Statistics and Research Agency's Guide to Popular First Names which is published every five years. The guide shows that Ryan was the most popular boy's name in the North in 1995, while Shannon was the most popular girl's name.
The Connacht Tribune reports that the father of a Connemara student who went missing in the US more than three years ago has been told by a psychic that his son is still alive and living on the country's west coast.
Mr Padraic McDonagh told the paper he didn't accept that his son, P.J., would not have contacted his family were he still alive.
P.J., who was 19 years old when he disappeared, was last seen leaving a pub with a bartender in Boston where he had gone to work for the summer. It is believed that they went to an old water-filled quarry which was a night party spot. A search by divers of the quarry, which is 300 ft deep in parts, was fruitless and Mr McDonagh has since campaigned to have it drained.
Mr McDonagh brought an English psychic to the quarry within the past two months and he said P.J. was still alive and living in either San Diego or Mexico.
The Donegal Democrat reports that only four people in the county have applied for divorce in the first six months since it became available. While Dubliners top the divorce league, making 142 out of the 244 applications to date in the State, no applications have been filed from Tipperary, Kilkenny, Longford, Monaghan or Roscommon.
Stray dogs roam the streets of Nugentstown, Kells, Co Meath, following the closure of the town's dog pound, according to the Meath Chronicle. The paper reports that since the pound's closure, run by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Navan Puppy Rescue Centre has received 15 to 20 calls about stray dogs per week.
A woman from Castleconnell in Co Limerick has called for help to find her two dogs. Ms Emer O'Donnell, who has lost four dogs in one year, made her plea in the Limerick Leader.
Ms O'Donnell's golden retriever and brown terrier, which she kept in a large pen in her back garden, have gone missing. The missing pets were replacements for two of Ms O'Donnell's dogs which collapsed and died while she was walking them on the shores of Lough Derg in Castlelough last year.
She said she believed the dead dogs had eaten polluted algae. She told the paper it was "heartbreaking" to lose two dogs for the second time in a year.
