Down come the holy crosses and up go the communications masts. That's one way to look at the dramatic social changes in the "country outside Dublin", for want of a better term. You could hardly call it rural Ireland anymore, now that "rural areas are losing the battle against migration to towns and villages", commented the Roscommon Champion on the latest Central Statistics Office report. There was "dismay" and "devastation" in Co Sligo over the theft of a 15-year-old Penal cross from a holy well altar at Tobernalt. The local curate told the Sligo Champion he feared that the thieves may have already disposed of the cross.

In Co Sligo, there was "shock and anger" at the county council's decision to go against "huge" local opposition and to approve a 140-ft communications mast to be erected on beautiful Ox Mountain, said the Sligo Champion.

In Co Roscommon there was "anger" over plans to erect a second mast on Sliabh Ban, an action which locals claim would lead to "desecration of the mountain", said the Roscommon Herald.

Then again, there are places where the communications technology and the crosses are coming together. An "on air" church for elderly or infirm parishioners in the rural west is set to become a part of rural life, the Connacht Tribune reported. For a rental fee of £40 per year of a simple radio receiving device, local parishioners can tune into whatever Mass or ceremony is taking place in their church.

With new CSO statistics showing that 12,000 elderly people are living alone in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, the need for such a service is obvious. The Mayo News reported that 8,346 people are living alone in Mayo, many of them elderly and in remote areas, "which may help explain the increasing number of attacks on the elderly in the county in recent years".

The Kerryman focused on the CSO finding that a quarter of people living in Co Kerry are "blow-ins"; one-in-three of these were born outside Ireland, most of them in England and Wales.

Life for "blow-ins" isn't always the idyll they have hoped for. A housing estate in Portlaoise is more like "Beirut" and the "Bronx" than of our idea of rural Co Laois, the Laois Nationalist said.

"Forced to flee estate" said its headline concerning a story that residents of a Portlaoise housing estate are leaving their homes because of intimidation from other residents and neglect by Laois County Council.

One of the fleeing families came from London five years ago to give their children "a better life in Ireland" and instead found themselves in a rubbish-strewn estate infested with rats, mice and freely roaming horses. "Things turned into a nightmare" when the family complained to the council and were "singled out by those other tenants whom they complained of".

Who needs a lawnmower when you have a brass neck? Listowel District Court heard that in Tarbert, Co Kerry, last August, a 20-year-old unemployed musician called at the home of a woman and asked her if she would like her grass cut, said Kerry's Eye.

She said yes and a price of £10 was agreed. The man pulled some grass with his hands and was given a £20 note. He went off to get the change, but did not come back. He has agreed to pay compensation.

Is it becoming a woman's world? wondered Michael Donovan of Kerry's Eye. During the recent Kerry-Mayo match in Dublin, a considerable Kerry contingent stayed in a grade A hotel in leafy Dublin 4. "A wonderful time was had by all, until the Sunday night after the big match, that is, when the limited public toilet facilities in the jam-packed hotel necessitated some of the fairer sex being forced to use the gents' rest room. They did with no apologies, but to the dismay of the more conservative Kerry followers.

"One gentleman figured, `OK, it's a free-for-all' and wandered nonchalantly into the ladies. But what's sauce for the goose, alas, isn't necessarily sauce for the gander. All of a sudden he was confronted by the manager, accompanied by two burly gentlemen who made Al Capone's minders look like Laurel and Hardy. He was summarily `escorted' from the premises."

Ballymena will soon boast a "super loo" and public shower facility which "should be the envy of the province" said the Ballymena Guardian. The £650,000 toilet will have washing up facilities for day-trippers and showers for local business executives with busy schedules.

The Kildare Nationalist said that Athy's public loo was given "the bum's rush" by whoever made a bomb from high-powered bangers and blew it to pieces.