`Strange happenings" have been reported at a holy shrine in the townland of Kerrytown, Co Donegal. Pilgrims to the shrine, where the Virgin Mary reputedly appeared to a local family almost 60 years ago, say they have seen white crosses floating in the sky, according to the Donegal Democrat.
The paper reports on local calls for the Pope to recognise the site and for the Catholic Church to designate it as a holy place.
The pilgrims claim the crosses appeared while they were saying the rosary at the shrine.
One woman from New York said the apparition was "amazing. I saw a bright white cross floating in the sky which came towards me and hung there", she said. "I didn't say anything at first until we had finished praying and then I realised that everyone else had seen it too," she said.
The Kerrytown shrine became a place of pilgrimage after members of the Ward family reported seeing the Virgin Mary on a large rock at the bottom of their garden in 1939.
A report on these apparition claims compiled for the then Bishop of Raphoe failed to convince the church of their authenticity.
The paper reports that locals dismissive of the current apparition claims say the people saw a reflection of a large white cross which now sits on top of the rock.
Cereal farmers in Cork are facing losses of up to £12 million and possible bankruptcy following this year's disastrous harvest, The Corkman reports in a page one story.
The chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association in Cork Central, Mr Jim O'Regan, told the paper that a Government rescue package is needed to save farmers from the financial ruin they are facing following the torrential rain.
About one quarter of the State's cereal harvest is grown in Co Cork and only half the county's crops have been harvested, according to Mr O'Regan.
The paper also devotes a full inside page to the fall-out from the flash flooding disaster which a dog called Diver was lucky to survive.
The black labrador's swimming instincts saved his life after his kennel was swept away in the rain in Freemount.
As the high water carried away everything in its path, Diver managed to swim to safety in his owner's house. The scramble for tickets for this month's All-Ireland senior hurling final will be more intense this year in North Tipperary as its allocation of tickets has been cut.
The Guardian reports that North Tipperary division's allocation of terrace tickets has fallen from 2,000 for the county's last appearance in an All-Ireland final in 1991 to 1,100 this month when Tipperary faces Clare.
Although the division's allocation of stand tickets has risen from 494 to 624 for this month's final, this increase has not off-set the fall in the number of terrace tickets, according to the paper.
More than a year after Michelle de Bruin's triple medal victory at the Atlanta Olympic games prompted calls for the construction of an Olympic size pool in Ireland, plans are underway to do just that.
The Nationalist reports that the parish of Graiguecullen in Co Carlow has applied for planning permission to extend its existing 25 metre pool to 50 metres. Work on St Fiacc's pool, which opened in 1994, is due to start before the end of the year and will be completed by next summer. Concerns for the safety of swimmers in Co Clare have prompted calls for clampdowns on the uses of jet skis and power boats. Kilkee Town Commissioners have called for them to be outlawed from parts of Moore Bay and anglers in the Ballina area want restrictions on their usage in Lough Derg, according to the Clare Champion.
The paper reports that the town commissioners have called on the Department of the Marine to bring in more stringent laws governing the use of jet skis and public protests against their usage have been organised in Ballina.
The chairman of the town commissioners, Mr PJ Linnane, said jet skis were responsible for three deaths and injuries to nearly 300 people in Great Britain.
The Kerryman reports that anglers in Munster are angry at what they claim is a lack of representation on a committee ordered by the Minister for the Environment and Rural Development, Mr Noel Dempsey, to investigate the pollution which has made Lough Leane in Killarney, Co Kerry, unsafe.
The paper reports that only one angling representative in Munster has been included on the committee which will identify the causes of the pollution. A spokesman for Lough Leane Anglers Association told the paper that Munster anglers are the users of the lough and should be better represented on the committee.
Gardai in Kilkenny are investigating an incident in which part of a man's ear was bitten off and swallowed.
According to the Kilkenny People, the man was attacked on a bus while returning to the city from a disco. "A subsequent search of the bus failed to locate the external part of the organ and it is believed that the assailant may have swallowed it," the paper says.