Big spender's free-for-all gets them talking in Mayo

One for everybody in the audience! A party, food, drink, music and a holiday to anywhere in the world - as long as you lived in Mayo or Roscommon and were willing to sell land to the host. That's how the Connaught Tele- graph tells it. "A wealthy Irish exile is the talk of east Mayo following a lavish drinks party in Kilkelly. . .in which free holidays were offered to any destination in the world to any landowners who sold him property."

Bert `Ginger' Mooney, who is apparently from the Ballindine area of the county, predicts that by the end of the month he will own some 500 acres in the Mayo-Roscommon area. His target is 2,000 acres and his plans are to run the Irish end of his Boston business interests from outside the US for tax reasons. The party in the Jug And Punch pub in Kilkelly was "packed", the paper tells us. It cost Mr Mooney £10,000 which was, he says, "well worth it". With free food and drink as refreshments, 10 smallholders reached a deal with him that night.

In the dour east, however, it seems people aren't interested in parties at all. The Westmeath Ex- aminer warns there will be no Mullingar St Patrick's Day parade in 2000 - due to lack of interest. Despite much fanfare and advance publicity for the meeting to plan the event, the only people who turned up were members of the parade committee. They waited and waited and in the end the chairwoman, Ms Angela Maher, was forced to concede that perhaps, ". . .the people of Mullingar have spoken. . .we are not foolish enough to go ahead if the town does not want it," she added.

The main hangover on most papers' minds, however, was of the post-election variety.

Father and son are resplendent in matching caps on the front page of the Kingdom. Jackie and son Michael Healy-Rae were both victorious in their challenges for Kerry County Council. Jackie takes a seat for the Killarney area and Michael scraped in in the Killorgin area. And as with "like father, like son" it may be "like Dublin, like Kerry". The paper reports that Fianna Fail looks set to cut a deal with the Healy-Rae Independents to gain overall control of the council.

Some in Kerry feel they got too many votes. The Kerryman says that though Dick Spring's sister, Maeve, topped the poll in the election to Tralee County Council, she is less than delighted. It seems she took so many votes her Labour party running mate, John Commane, was left scraping an all too bare barrel. "Deputy Spring acknowledged in the dying hours of the count on Sunday afternoon that the party's vote management strategy would have to be re-examined in the light of the loss of the seat," the paper says.

Defeated candidates elsewhere are seeing their demise sweetened. According to the Limerick Leader, two defeated county councillors, Michael Healy and Noel Gleeson, may be allowed to avail of the so-called "scrappage scheme" if their successful former colleagues have their way. However, while councillor Jim Houlihan (Fine Gael) proposed that they be given the special retirement package, the outgoing Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Joe Harrington (Independent) opposed the move. The gratuity scheme "should be left alone," he said. ail) and Sean Farrell (Fine Gael) were both pursuing the seat in the Ballymahon electoral area which had been vacated by retired councillor Paddy Farrell. Representatives from each side were advised to "move back the required distance from the polling station".

Dana is, of course, all over the Connacht-Ulster papers. The Western People has high praise for Dana and for the voters too.

The "people of the region showed a maturity and a willingness to break links with established parties", the writer of its main story says.

The Donegal Democrat praised the way she "went out of her way to be helpful towards the large gathering of. . .media", while the Roscommon Champion is more circumspect. Its editorial comments that during the campaign she tended to speak "in generalities" and "showed a lack of positive initiative". ail candidate was heard to remark, during celebrations last Saturday night: "Would you look at them. Last week it was all back-stabbing and tonight it's all back-slapping", while three days later, as the second re-count in the Borris-in-Ossory ward went into its second day, a weary follower asked: "Couldn't they just get a carpenter and build another seat?"

And the other constant through the papers, as always, is stories on drugs.

The Waterford News and Star has a story of a local man who admitted responsibility for a drugs find, saving his girlfriend. Aidan Burns signed a statement saying he owned cannabis after he was told it was the only way to get his girlfriend out of jail.

In Kerry a 16-year-old Listowel youth, who acted as a drugs courier, was told his legs would be broken if he revealed who he was carrying drugs for, the Kerryman reports. Listowel District Court was told he had £2,500 worth of ecstasy when arrested. His mother has also received threats.

Too young to know better, some might say, and one hopes that readers everywhere will know better than to follow a recipe cooked up by a young man in Co Kilkenny. The age of William John Nolan is not given but this chap took to trying his hand at cannabis crumble. The Kilkenny People reports that he put 17 grammes of resin into his microwave to try and soften it. Rather than cut it, he crumbled it, Kilkenny court was told. The case has been adjourned.