It can't be often that a regional newspaper gets to cover a major international event. So it came to pass that Louth had its hour in the sun when President Clinton arrived in Dundalk last week to give the town its biggest boost for years.
The Drogheda Argus made the most of its neighbour's good fortune. No fewer than 12 pages, many in colour, were devoted to the visit and the paper reported that 60,000 people had turned out to greet the most powerful man in the world.
The Anglo Celt, which circulates in Louth also, was a little more circumspect in its coverage, although it also included a front-page colour photograph of President Clinton alongside a front-page report that Cavan town was getting a new factory, called Teradyne, which would manufacture inter-connections systems equipment and result in 2,000 new jobs in the area.
The Leinster Leader says that although the visit of President Clinton was welcome, "yet something almost surreal seems to have surrounded the entire trip.
"We have been constantly told not to expect any earth-shattering movement in the peace process in Northern Ireland. In short Mr Clinton is here to help, but only if the parties immediately involved want to he helped."
Things were slightly more parochial in Kerry's Eye, where they appear to have inherited Cavan's problems in the matter of potholes. What is described as "a giant pothole" on the Abbeydorney road had resulted in damage to three cars in the space of half an hour last week. "A further seven cars were damaged in the same area over the weekend," the paper reports.
The Abbeyborney pothole is two feet deep and three feet wide and "more like a crater" than a hole, according to one unfortunate driver who had two tyres and two wheel-rims wrecked.
The railway between Sligo and Dublin is also in the news again.
The Sligo Champion reports that it took 2 1/2 hours to get from Sligo to Collooney, a journey of seven miles, because of an electrical failure last week.
Undaunted, a group of intrepid travellers are setting out from Cork to cycle to Sligo to collect funds for the Alzheimers Society and the ISPCC. All the cyclists are "media people", including Kitty Holland of The Irish Times, and will be dressed as Santa Claus.
Another Irish Times journalist in the news is Miriam Donohoe, who earns full-page treatment in the Carlow Nationalist and Leinster Times on her appointment as Asia correspondent for this newspaper. The paper points out that Miriam "cut her journalistic teeth" in the newsroom of the Nationalist.
A "sophisticated pirate factory" making counterfeit PlayStation games, DVDs and video films was discovered by gardai in an isolated farmhouse near Tinahely, reports the Wicklow People.
Dublin criminals are believed to be involved.
In Tipperary, Mr Michael Lowry TD was feted by 2,130 supporters at a function to mark his 21st year in public life. The event was covered extensively in the Nenagh Guardian, which commented: "In the consideration of the next general election and its relevance to North Tipperary, the one element that stands head and shoulders above all others, is the unrivalled position of Michael Lowry."
The Donegal Democrat refers to the troubled subject of drink-driving.
Last week Donegal gardai began their effort to make this year a safe one on the county's roads by launching Operation Nollaig, the annual road safety campaign for the festive season, we are told.
The Midland Tribune also emphasises the problem of drink-driving: "Despite repeated warnings, not just at Christmas, drivers are still ignoring the warnings not to drink and drive."
More than 30 drivers a day were arrested for drink-driving offences, it says. The paper points out that men are responsible for 90 per cent of alcohol-related serious and fatal road accidents, and "nearly two-thirds of those are caused by 17 to 34-year-olds".