THE Liffey could run dry if Kildare's "main water amenity" continues to be "abused to support Dublin's water needs", claimed the Kildare Nationalist. This summer hundreds of households in Kildare were without water. "If Dublin is thirsty, Kildare will turn into the Sahara", claimed Cllr Paddy Power.

The county pays Dublin Corporation £1 million a year for water, but it has emerged that Kildare has no written agreement guaranteeing supply, said the newspaper. It could cost thousands of millions to bring water from the Shannon, the council heard.

Senator John Dardis claimed that the 8,000 lead pipe connections in Kildare had health implications which put BSE only in the half penny place.

The Longford Leader revealed that Longford was the only county with no disabled person employed in 1994-95 even though it has been Government policy that at least 3 per cent of employees with local authorities and health boards should be people with a disability.

"Disabled people are not a nuisance in the workplace", Mr Michael Finucane TD told doubters on the day of the triumphant return of Irish athletes from the Para Olympics in Atlanta.

The first week of school was dominated by the prospect of schools closing due to strike action, with local newspapers reporting reaction to the INTO's planned closure of 10 schools, a prelude to the escalated closure of 100. The Roscommon Herald regards the strike action as an "inexcusable" thing for students to face, but in support of the INTO it commented: "These 100 schools will be forced to cope with the largest classes in Europe ... This country has an education system of which, overall, it can be proud. Bigger classes are not better classes. So why ruin it?"

The Donegal People's Press blamed the Minister for Education's "rigidity". Two Donegal schools, Glenswilly and Creeslough, have the "unenviable accolade of the highest pupil teacher ratios in the country."

"Parents are outraged and the staff are disillusioned. We have an empty classroom lying idle and we have lost a good, popular teacher. We are one of eight schools in the parish that has never even had the facility of a remedial teacher, which we find a wee bit galling", said Mr Kevin Ward, principal of Scoil Mhuire, Creeslough.

The All Ireland hurling post mortem included euphoria and disappointment, with the Limerick lads forced to defend themselves against stark criticism.

The Limerick Leader reported team manager Tom Ryan's "stern, reaction" to the post match comments of GAA president, Mr Jack Boothman.

"Describing aspects of the president's speech at the Burlington Hotel a couple of hours after the game as `completely out of order', the Limerick manager told the Limerick Leader that both himself and his players were deeply hurt that such remarks should be made publicly about their performance by one of the leading officers of our national games", said the newspaper.

Mr Ryan told the Leader: "Our lads were low enough after this defeat without those kind of remarks."

Over 800 Limerick supporters sat silently at the post match function as they listened to the GAA president ask "where was the passion?"

Acknowledging that Limerick people are hard to please, the Leader warned that "Tom Ryan and company would be well advised to listen to the criticism, however destructive at times, and to learn from it where possible."

The Wexford People reported the appalling, life threatening violence on a post match bus at 3 a.m. as euphoric supporters returned to the county. When knives were drawn, the Garda was called and the bus halted. "Youths with deep wounds and blood streaming from their faces" were led from the vehicle and some were frisked on the side of the road as gardai attempted to find the knife, which was never located.

"The Alcohol All Ireland" was how the Connacht Tribune put it, criticising the "buy up of the biggest sporting occasion" by Guinness. "It is not that drink is bad. It's not that sponsorship is bad. It is that drink - in excess - is a particularly costly social phenomenon in this country." It supported Father Leo Morahan's call for the Government and sports bodies to think again about sponsorship.