Alien visitations may have replaced religious visions as a source of wonder and confusion but the Sligo Champion has reminded readers that 13 years ago - "somewhat surprisingly" - people flocked to west Sligo, where three girls saw a figure of a veiled woman in greyish white. "Oh my God, it's her," one of the girls started screaming and even some local priests were convinced.
"Thirteen years on, the Carns visionaries remain as unshakeable in their belief as they were that fateful night in September 1985 when they claim to have witnessed an apparition of the Blessed Virgin in the west Sligo sky," said the newspaper. A vigil at the Carns grotto on Wednesday will be dedicated to the victims of the Omagh bomb. Thirteen-year-olds are calling the drug help-line in Waterford, said the Waterford News & Star. "We have seen a big shift over the last few years. The youngest callers used to be around 17 but now it's down to 14 and even 13 from time to time and up to around 40. Ecstasy is probably the biggest drug now, most people don't even bother to ask about hash anymore," said Rosaleen Hanton of the Waterford Drug Helpline.
The Nationalist and Leinster Times said that "Carlow gardai have launched a major crackdown on the illegal drugs trade in the town. Over the past two weeks, a large number of E tablets and 26 `deals' of amphetamines, commonly known as speed, have been seized."
Assaults, leaving two people suffering from stab wounds, took place in Carlow over the past two weeks, the newspaper added.
In Longford, a visiting French student was stabbed with a broken bottle, said the Longford News, and in Tralee a British tourist was beaten unconscious by three people who stole his £500 outside the entrance to the town park. "This has soured my experience of Tralee and I would be wary of advising friends to travel here," the tourist, Roger Miller, told Kerry's Eye.
The Westmeath Independent had a disturbing collection of court reports: "Nun robbed at knifepoint - Athlone youth given 20 months detention"; "Nine months for Athlone man after assaulting mother with bar - `I love my mammy,' says defendant from body of court"; "Athlone man (18) charged with breaking 35 windows in national school"; "19-year-old Athlone man charged with robbing elderly men" and "six months for assaulting and robbing tourist". "Get tough on trouble-makers" was the view expressed in the Western People following a brawl in Castlebar which Michael Ring TD, vice-chairman of Westport UDC, described as an "extremely ugly situation". The Westmeath Examiner said that the people of Westmeath were shocked and amazed to learn that 11 staff were required to look after an 11-year-old boy with acute behavioural problems in a residential house, at an annual cost of £200,000. Local residents are worried about their property values.
Following the Omagh bombing, a series of hoax bomb threats were reported by the Gorey Guardian, the Donegal Democrat and the Longford News, which blamed Leaving Certificate students "on the rampage". "With the advent of mobile phones and call cards, which can be used in public pay phones, it's extremely difficult to pin these people down," a Garda spokesman told the Donegal Democrat.
There was none of that nonsense in "unspoilt" and "civilised" Cavan, where the 1998 tourism season has been good, despite the weather, according to North West Tourism and The Anglo-Celt. "This newspaper, in recent weeks, has published two letters from happy and satisfied tourists who were both surprised and enthralled by what Co Cavan had to offer them. Both writers made the very same point. They did not know about Co Cavan because there was no tourist information about Cavan given to them - one of them was even advised to go elsewhere!" it commented.
The dreadful summer weather, coupled with poor cattle prices, has left "a terrible depression in rural Ireland", said the Western People. A Mayo co-op, Comhar Iorrais Teo, has called on the Minister for Agriculture to "help lift depression and hardship from Mayo farmers this autumn by making an order that all grants should be paid immediately and with as little red tape as possible".
Traffic accidents are costing £50 million annually in Cavan/ Monaghan and deaths from car accidents in the North Eastern Health Board region are twice the national average, said The Anglo- Celt. Gardai in the region have trebled the number of speeding tickets in the last two years with no noticeable improvement because drivers in high-powered cars simply pay the £50 fine. Now gardai are considering introducing a system of one penalty point per ticket. Three points and you're off the road.
