Disco dangers when the blood is up

"Presidential hopefuls Mary Banotti and Derek Keogh targeted Clare in their campaigns this week," said the Clare Champion. The Fine Gael candidate was looking so rejuvenated by her Clare visit that you would have sworn she was at least 20 years younger. Perhaps it was that kiss that had her glowing. For a woman whom the newspaper assumed to be Mary Banotti, but who looked remarkably like Mary's daughter Tanya, was seen pictured in a clinch with an "admiring follower". That left only one question: who is Derek Keogh?

The secret of a long, sweet life is simple. Kate O'Sullivan (101), of Cooleanig, Beaufort, takes five spoons of sugar in her tea, said the Kerryman. Kate celebrated her birthday last Friday week, then headed out to collect her pension at Kilgobnet post office.

Kerry full-back Barry O'Shea has got his missing jersey back. Whoever borrowed it from Barry's bag as he slept in a Killarney hotel after the AllIreland returned it washed and ironed. The jersey reappeared as if by magic in a bag on the bar counter of a pub, said the Kerryman.

Nightlife in provincial Ireland can be bloody at times. "Heads are for thinking with and should not be used as weapons of aggression," said Judge Oliver McGuinness when he fined two young men from Boyle a hefty £570 each after they collided in a "place of public entertainment", the Ros- common Herald reports.

Passions were also running high apres disco in Ballaghaderreen last August. A young man was fined £50 "for threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour in public" after he lost his temper when he saw his girlfriend of long standing "in the arms of someone else". Imposing the fine, Judge Bernard Brennan commented that the defendant had given the man in question "a hammering".

The injured party "declined to make a statement as he said he was scared", said the Herald.

Applicants to local improvement schemes in Donegal could be waiting for 28 years to have their works carried out, said the Donegal People's Press. A meeting of Donegal County Council heard there were 1,935 applications for LIS schemes costing over £8 million, but the council had only £305,555 to spend. "Tell applicants it's hopeless," Cllr Paddy Harte advised.

The O Dubhda clan has met to elect a chieftain under Brehon law, the Sligo Cham- pion reports. Chosen was Tom Dowds, a secondary teacher from Scotland whose father emigrated from Easkey.

"Autumn lambs" are drawing tourists to a farm in Limerick. The balmy autumn weather has led to a second lambing season for farmer Sean Ryan from Carrowkeale, provoking the Limerick Leader to wonder if a "seismic shift" as a result of global warming was under way. "Before the sky falls in, however, let's be grateful for small mercies like autumn lambs," it said.

The Leinster Express said gardai were investigating FAS schemes run by the GAA in Co Laois. The investigation was prompted by an alleged misuse of £50,000.

Limerick GAA was in turmoil last week within hours of senior hurling team captain Gary Kirby having lifted the National League trophy at Ennis. Under-siege manager Tom Ryan, whose request for another term in office has been put on hold, told the Limerick Leader that he felt deeply hurt that nobody in officialdom stood up at their after match dinner to congratulate his team. The Longford Leader reported that gardai had raided the Roscommon home of the president of Republican Sinn Fein, Ruairi O Bradaigh. "The search saw officers go through every aspect of the O Bradaigh home, and during their time there the officers scanned documents and correspondence, including those in relation to the party's forthcoming ardfheis," said the newspaper.

Mr O Bradaigh said he believed the raid had been carried out because he supported "an alternative strategy for peace in Ireland based on a new federation of the four provinces and maximum devolution of power following a British disengagement".

"Ming the Merciless", who believes that cannabis should be legalised, continues to court controversy in Galway. UCG students' union cancelled a showing of a film about his colourful general election campaign.

The film, which won the Best Irish Documentary award at the Galway Film Fleadh, was dropped because of a doublebooking, said the union, although president Darren McCallig told the Galway Ad- vertiser that "the nature of the film might not be suitable for screening by an apolitical union representing the interests of students".

Before anyone had time to chew over that explanation, the film got its screening under the auspices of the Political Discussion Society.