Gardai beat hasty retreat from ravers

You wouldn't know it was summer by the weather, but you might by the madness.

In Connemara, 700 new-age ravers armed with stones, bottles and large amounts of illegal drugs beat gardai off a beach. "If the Force had not withdrawn from the threatening crowd, who assembled in huge numbers on a beach in Ballyconneely at the weekend, some of their members could have been seriously injured," a Garda chief told the Connacht Tribune. "Rave" isn't the word for what they were doing on Lough Erne in Co Fermanagh, although "raving mad" might do. "Anybody unfamiliar with the goings on around Irvinestown this time of year might have thought that the people cavorting by the lough shore as dusk descended had taken leave of their senses," said Maurice Kennedy of the Impartial Reporter.

"The scene was like a film set . . .Darby O'Gill meets The Wickerman, that truly disturbing story of strange nocturnal goings on in a small island community.

"Here we had upstanding members of the community, businessmen, teachers, community workers, out in the dead of night with torches and searchlights trained on the water's edge, combing the shoreline of Horse Island. Looking for leprechauns, we were told, without so much as a trace of irony."

The organisers of Ireland's first-ever "live leprechaun hunt" have promised a prize of £30,000 to anyone who can come up with a "little fella no more than eight inches in height and who can quite categorically be identified as a living, breathing leprechaun."

It was all a publicity stunt for July's Lady of the Lake Festival, although not everyone was laughing. One elderly lady admitted she and her husband had seen leprechauns on Horse Island but had "kept quiet" for fear of being ridiculed.

Another local woman said she had seen a column of smoke coming from the island recently, "perhaps a turf fire to keep the little people warm at night."

The Connaught Telegraph explained why the Westport Rugby Club has "a sinking feeling" after winning its first victory in 33 years. Members had to "wave" goodbye to their coveted trophy when it fell overboard from a ferry taking Westport Rugby Club followers home after a day trip in Inishturk, nine miles off the coast.

"Amid great excitement the club had won the Rank Xerox Connacht Junior League Division 1 final in February when they defeated Tuam by 18 to 7 points.

"Team member Danny O'Toole (22) is from Inishturk and the club brought the cup to the island for the June Bank holiday weekend where he was toast of the community.

"Delighted islanders filled the Cup in the local community centre and Westport team members who travelled were loudly applauded for their success. But misfortunate struck on the way home when the trophy tumbled into the sea. "The club members were shocked initially but then all they could do was laugh," said the skipper of the Caher Star ferry, Jack Heanue. "With any luck the cup might be retrieved in a fishing net at a later stage," he added.

"Wedding hell" was what the Wexford People called it when 60 brides-to-be were left without their dresses after a wedding shop "did a bunk with thousands of pounds worth of dress orders outstanding". As a crowd of "hysterical" brides-to-be gathered outside the shop, gardai had to be called to deal with one distressed father who insisted on taking his daughter's wedding dress without showing a receipt. Most of the shop's customers "have been left without dresses for their big day after forking out hundreds of pounds for outfits," said the People.

Eleanor Murphy, who had paid £500 to the shop, was one of the luckier ones; she found her outfit in a dressmaker's but discovered that it had already been worn. "There were perspiration stains under the arms, the train was ripped and an arm was torn but at least I got it and I can get it repaired," she said. Eleanor also discovered that another bride-to-be had paid a substantial amount of money to hire the dress she had bought.

The days are gone when foreign tourists feared being mugged only in Dublin. Two reports of muggings of tourists in idyllic rural settings proved that there's no safe place anymore.

The Roscommon Champion said that in broad daylight, an American tourist stopped his rented car so that he could take photographs. When he returned to his car, his passport, suitcase, luggage and money were gone.

At Powerscourt Waterfall, also in daylight, a group of backpackers were intimidated by armed men dressed in camouflage combat clothing. The backpackers offered the men £15 but they refused, only to return later to take the money from the frightened youths. Gardai believe the muggers were a terrorist gang on training exercises, said the Bray People.