The deaths of eight asylum seekers in Co Wexford who were being smuggled into the State placed refugee issues in the foreground this week of much regional reporting and comment.
A single photograph dominates the front page of The Echo, showing a bouquet of flowers at Wexford Business Park, where the container containing the stowaways was found. Framing the photograph was the headline: "Dec. 8, 2001. A tragic date in our history".
The paper's editor, Mr Tom Mooney, referred to "the amoral fortress erected around the country's perimeters by the Minister [of Justice] and his cohorts".
In contrast to those who since the tragedy have been "making the right noises and receiving the headlines", Mr Mooney said there were local people who have improved the asylum situation in the region.
"Working behind the scenes, and without any acclaim or thirst for publicity, has been the South Eastern Health Board and the individual representatives of the Church, who have endeavoured to facilitate and provide accommodation for asylum seekers in Wexford".
The Gorey Guardian said "the hearts of Wexford people went out this week to the families of the eight dead and the survivors."
A different type of treatment for asylum seekers in Wexford was revealed, however, in another of The Echo's articles this week.
The owner of an African shop in the town, Ms Holla Osuntola, from Nigeria, told the paper racism is "far worse in Wexford than Dublin". She said "many Africans who were living in Wexford have gone back to Waterford, Dundalk and Dublin where people treat them better".
On the deaths of the asylum seekers, the Midland Tribune said the State "could do more to accept refugees from countries which have less than admirable human rights issues".
An editorial in the Limerick Leader said "the notion that the catastrophe was somehow the result of Government policy is patently unreasonable".
The mid-west, the editorial continued, "perhaps more than other places beyond the Pale, was shocked by the deaths".
As well as human smuggling, the fall-out of other serious crimes - drug dealing, murder, vigilantism - this week featured in the regional press.
The Kerryman had two crime stories on its front page - and the paper played a part in the unfolding of one.
Its lead story, headlined "Sinister vigilante attack leads to cannabis haul", began:
"Over £12,000 worth of cannabis has been taken off the streets after the Kerryman led garda∅ to an isolated spot outside Castleisland where the drugs were dumped following a vigilante-style attack on a suspected drug dealer".
The paper was told of the drugs by "a source close to Concerned Parents against Drugs (CPAD)", the group claiming to be behind the incident in which a man was abducted and his car burnt.
Members of the CPAD dumped the drugs in a ditch beside a farmyard, the paper reported.
But Chief Supt Fred Garvey told the paper those behind the incident had frustrated a Garda investigation into alleged drug offences.
"This investigation could have led to a conviction, but it now looks like evidence is no longer available," he said.
Kerry's Eye did not seem to have as direct an involvement as the Kerryman, but it said the victim, from Dublin, had been "bound, gagged and beaten" by three men carrying baseball bats.
A short time later, the paper reported, garda∅ were phoned and told the man had been left bound and gagged on a hillside.
The other serious crime report on the Kerryman's front page - "Killarney link to gruesome murder in London" - concerned a murder committed 20 years ago.
London's Old Bailey sentenced Patrick Folan to life imprisonment last week for the murder in 1981 of his wife, Michelle Folan, whose parents were from Killarney.
The court heard he had strangled his wife and buried her in a bed of concrete near their home.
Concerns over more everyday crimes were highlighted in the Midland Tribune. "Although it appears very quiet when passing through, the small village of Cloughjordan is currently greatly troubled by the problems of vandalism, harassment and burglaries", the paper reported.