People living near an Army shooting range, five miles from Cahir, Co Tipperary, claim that their peaceful summer evenings are being shattered by gunfire.
"Requests for the noise levels to be reduced have so far fallen on deaf ears," said the Nationalist and Munster Advertiser.
In Limerick, it's the scepticism, not the ears, that stood some testing last week. Brendan Halligan, a columnist with the Limerick Leader, pronounced himself "a convert" who now believes in UFO phenomena after hearing about the remarkable experience of "a Limerick man and a Limerick woman - both of whom I have known for years and both of whom are utterly sensible, highly intelligent and patently honest."
The woman was watching a Diana Dors biopic on television when the screen blacked out intermittently. When she and her son went to the window, they could hardly believe what they saw. In the western sky there was "a large, red, glowing, roughly saucer-shaped object with laser-type lights. It wasn't a conventional aircraft: it hovered silently for some 20 minutes in approximately the same position before disappearing in the direction of the Clare hills."
In the catalogue of unfortunate headlines, the Kilkenny People deserves a spot in the top 10 with this awkward metaphor: "Cervical screening - seeing the wood from the trees."
"Jailed for a year - out in a week," declared the Drogheda In- dependent. "An 18-year-old teenager, described as `a walking terror' by Judge Flann Brennan at Drogheda District Court last week as he sentenced her to 12 months for theft, criminal damage and other charges, was released from prison last week after only five days."
The young woman "was convicted of handling stolen bottles of Woodies in February. On March 16th, she threatened a 13-year-old to hand over £5 or she would break their (sic) legs. On March 17th, she took £13 from a girl in Bolton Square. On April 4th, she had been arrested for kicking in the door of a house in Fair Street, and as she was leaving the Garda station, a knife had fallen from her pocket.
"On April 5th, she took a handbag containing keys, cash and a cheque book from St Mary's Church. On April 11th, she was found after breaking into an unoccupied house in Clinton's Lane, and had cannabis resin in her pocket. Also in April, she had snatched £10 from a supermarket within half an hour of her release from a Garda station." The Department of Justice said that the woman was on temporary release "subject to the condition that the person released must be of good behaviour."
Residents of a housing estate in Co Kilkenny are living "in the grip of fear" due to harassment and intimidation, said the Kilkenny People. Special Garda teams now have to patrol the area after complaints about marauding youths.
The Roscommon Herald's headline, "Rotten cow carcase along cultural trail", referred to a sight that seems to sum up the uneasy balance of prosperity and neglect that we've grown used to. A proposed cultural tour of Co Roscommon that would bring working artists, craft-workers and places of historical and cultural interest together, may not be viable because it is being polluted by everything from unwanted dogs to used condoms, said the newspaper.
Years after the passing of EU-inspired no-smoking regulations, smokers at bingo sessions in Co Carlow were flouting what they saw as Eurocratic law, until environmental health officers stepped in and threatened the local priest, Father John Byrne, with six months in "the big house" if he couldn't get his players to stop, said the Nationalist and Leinster Times.