Just like the rest of the Republic, the few hundred households on the island of Inishmore off Co Galway have all received their own copy of the Euro Changeover Board's guide to the euro. Since Inishmore is a Gaeltacht island, all the booklets delivered were thoughtfully printed in Irish, a move that has been repeated in mainland Irish-speaking areas.

On Inishmore, however, there's just one problem: many of the islanders have had trouble understanding the translation.

"It was in book Irish," says Mr Mβirt∅n Fitzpatrick, postmaster on Inishmore. "Most people couldn't understand it and we didn't get anything in English. At this stage, people are hoping the euro will go away."

The "island question" is a thorny logistical issue common to many parts of the euro zone. Almost all of the participating states lay claim to a host of small islands, which barely merit a dot on a country map but which still form one of the more complicated aspects of organising the changeover. Despite their relatively sparse populations, the island transition to euros still has to happen on time.

Of the many factors that mark the Republic's 30 inhabited offshore islands from the mainland, two stand out in the changeover: transport and banking facilities.

None of the islands houses a bank branch or ATM, with the result that the changeover will almost exclusively be conducted through island retailers and post offices. Understandably, this is the source of some concern among island residents.

Aranmore in Co Donegal lies three miles from the mainland and the nearest banks are in Dungloe, four miles inland. According to Mr Pβdraig ╙ Domhnaill, island manager, euro awareness is low among many of Aranmore's residents, possibly because of the lack of a banking presence on the island. He believes the banks are not so attentive to the islanders' needs as they used to be, and says that visits from financial institutions are becoming rarer as time goes on.

"Banks have pulled out of community service altogether," he says.

His views are echoed by Mr Phil Boyle, who runs a supermarket in Aranmore. Mr Boyle is particularly concerned for the older residents of the island, many of whom, he says, are not in the habit of using mainland banks and may neglect to change their pound savings into euros.

"People who have scrimped and saved may be afraid to put their money in a bank," he says.

Much of the population is unaware, according to Mr Boyle, that the changeover period is finite and that shops will cease to accept pounds after February 9th. After that date, the only place where notes and coins can be exchanged is at the Central Bank, a few hundred miles away in Dublin.

"It's getting very worrying," says Mr Boyle. "We have to take advice and see what can be done for the older people who would have money. You'd hate to see people losing out in any way."

As a businessman, Mr Boyle has made arrangements with his bank for the front-loading of currency but he has concerns about the level of information on offer to his customers.

"We're starting to price everything in euro, just to show people," he says, "but it's going to be very awkward for the first few weeks. When you do have dual pricing, people think we're moving the prices up. We'll just have to try to get the change out of the way as soon as possible."

Unusually among retailers, Mr Boyle is quite happy with the timing of the changeover, since the beginning of January is traditionally a slow period on the island.

"New Year's Day is a very quiet time here after New Year's Eve, and I've been thinking that it'll be great because it's a slack day. I'm delighted with the timing."

Less optimistic, however, is Mr Fitzpatrick, the Inishmore postmaster, who declares himself "definitely not ready".

Mr Fitzpatrick is critical of An Post's information strategy, which he says has so far been minimal.

"An Post has done nothing. They seem to think that we'll just get on with it," he says, highlighting in particular his lack of knowledge on when notes and coins are going to come his way.

"I've been living in limboland for the last year. I haven't been asked to go to a conference, symposium or anything. At the moment, I'm very ill-prepared. I might go to the Caribbean for Christmas."

Joking aside, the issue is serious. If post offices are to be at the centre of changeover on the islands, surely it's time that they knew what their strategy was, especially since they have been chosen as the distribution network for the starter packs of euro coins, due to be on sale from mid-December.

According to a spokeswoman at An Post's Dublin headquarters, there is some method in the information delay. The 12 island post offices form part of An Post's general euro information programme, which will be kicking into gear over coming weeks.

She says the timing has been carefully judged so that training would not be forgotten by the time January came.

Euro currency has not yet been distributed to the island offices.

"There's no need for concern," she says. "It's purely that we don't want to confuse people and have to have refresher courses. There will be an information seminar for all post office staff, as well as a customised instruction manual, which is customised to each office, depending on which services they offer. There are a lot of different variations."

Ms Mary Murphy is a postmistress and shopkeeper on Bere Island off the coast of Cork, home to around 200 permanent residents. Again, her main concern is with the island's elderly population, particularly the 20 or so pensioners she has on her books.

"We all got a booklet in the post but I don't think people understand," she says.

Pensions will continue to be denominated in pounds until the end of December, a fact that leads Ms Murphy to expect a rush of pension demands in the last week of the year.

For a one-person post office with an adjoining shop, an additional task such as this can make life difficult.

"I'm kind of dreading it," says Ms Murphy. She has not yet decided whether she will open her shop on January 1st or not, preferring to leave that decision until she has an idea of how much demand will be created by holidaymakers.

Her situation as postmistress cum shopkeeper on an island with no banking facilities leaves her at the changeover coalface since, technically, she is the sole source of euro notes and coins for her community. She says that she has had only limited contact with her bank on the issue.

"There's definitely more pressure," she says. "I don't know what the banks are going to give us or how it's going to work and they (the islanders) are going to rely on me. They'll be depending on me to know, so I'll just have to sit down and study it. It'll just take time."

It could all be worse, however. Think of the poor French who have to make sure that their multitude of small overseas territories are stocked with the new currency at exactly the same time as all the shops on the Champs ElysΘes. From Guadeloupe in the Caribbean to Nouvelle CalΘdonie in the Pacific, the same rules apply.

This slightly unusual situation makes a small island in the Indian Ocean the winner in the first-to- use-the-euro race. La RΘunion, a tropical island 800 kilometres west of Madagascar, will be the first euro-zone territory to enter 2002 and, therefore, the first to begin circulating the euro on the street.

According to some reports, banks are hoping it won't be a repeat of the island's last experience of changeover: when La RΘunion changed from African francs to French francs, the older natives started to produce piles of "old money" that smelled a bit muddy.

Apparently, they had been buried in back gardens and in fields for safekeeping.