Cancel the millennium celebrations, if you've bothered to make any plans. Instead of ringing in 2000 in the final moments of December 31st, we should be doing so 13 days earlier on December 18th. This is good news for everyone who would like to go to the pub, dine out, see a movie or hire a babysitter on "New Year's Eve".
The newly formed Riverstown Julian Society have pledged loyalty to the calendar created by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. Blaming "a bunch of Eurocrats on a junket" for messing about with the original Julian calendar in the 1580s, the Julians are convinced that everyone else will be wide of the mark when it comes to celebrating the arrival of the new millennium.
A spokesman for the society told the Sligo Champion that New Year's Day, 45 BC, was the first day of the Julian Calendar. Julius Caesar declared that "the sun took 365 and a quarter days to go around the world and in order to get some order on the new calendar, 46 BC was adjusted and, following the granting of an exemption, was made 15 months long. He also invented the leap year," stated the paper somewhat confusingly.
The spokesman explained "We are all 13 days older than we need to be, the tax year starts on 5th April instead of 25th March and the battle of the Boyne was fought on July 1st, 1690, instead of on the Twelfth." Try telling that to Ian Paisley.
The new AIB hole-in-the-wall in Rathkeale, Co Limerick has earned the name "Aladdin's lamp" after account-holders got a windfall. Customers using the ATM keyed in their withdrawals, then, instead of getting a combination of £5 notes, they got bundles of crisp £50 notes.
Several customers seem to have made repeated visits to the machine before the mistake was spotted and stopped, but other worried customers arrived in the Garda station with their "booty".
AIB has declined to say whether the overpaid customers will have the full amounts received withdrawn from their accounts.
The "Information Age Town" of Ennis has lost faith in the cashless society. The £4 million "Ennis Visa Cash experiment" has been a "monumental failure", stated the Clare Champion. Almost one year ago, AIB, Bank of Ireland and Eircom provided the citizens of Ennis with "electronic purses" - cards with which they could make small value purchases.
Terminals were distributed to the town's 300 shops, but uptake has been so poor that Dunnes, which has 10 terminals, was doing an average of two or three electronic purse transactions a day. Mr Gerry Connellan of Abbey Newsagents described the project as "history".
Mayo County Council has defended its decision to pay a £2,333 allowance each to six members of the authority who served as chairmen of Strategic Policy Committees - even though the committees met only once. Further meetings were prevented by a nationwide industrial dispute involving local authority staff, stated the Connaught Telegraph.
Armed gardai carried out a search of two caravan sites in the Poolboy area of Ballinasloe last week as part of their October Fair crackdown aimed at preventing a confrontation between feuding Traveller families, stated the Connacht Tribune.
The Limerick Leader reported that residents of Castletroy, Co Limerick, have "hit the roof" over plans for social housing for Travellers on Co Limerick's most expensive development land.
Gardai are monitoring a "tense situation" in Longford town following a "frightening" attack on a house. Ms Ann McDonnell, who is seven months pregnant, hid in a hot press with her 10 1/2 month-old baby son while her husband faced the attackers. Ann and her husband, Martin, were asleep last Tuesday morning when their house was attacked, at 2.30 a.m., by the gang of 10 to 15 men armed with pick-axe handles and slash-hooks. The men smashed glass in the front door, but failed to gain entry.
Ann believes that her house was attacked by people associated with a local money-lender to whom she owed £150. "The family fled the house and are afraid to go back to collect their belongings," stated the Longford Leader.
Gardai, who made no arrests, said the attack may have been part of a long-running feud.
"The dawning of a dream" was how the Tipperary Star described the opening of the Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute in Thurles and Clonmel. Tipperary folk marched on Leinster House, dug into their pockets and fought off cynicism to keep the TRBDI issue alive for 20 years. "This is indeed a proud week for Co Tipperary," declared the newspaper.