IT WAS last call for Caileach, the noisy rooster whose early morning antics angered neighbours and provoked a High Court action. The Connaught Telegraph said Caileach was found dead last week, much to the dismay of its loyal owner, Ms Moira Gallagher, who was jailed for three weeks last year when she refused to get rid of it and build a boundary wall with her neighbour.

"Marauding dogs are being blamed for the untimely death of the cockerel," said the newspaper.

Ms Gallagher, "well known as a determined individual who has won recognition locally for her arm wrestling abilities", eventually won the right to keep the cockerel but conceded that work on a dividing wall should proceed. Progress on its construction will be reviewed at the next sitting of Westport Circuit Court in March.

Saints are out but health board members are PC when it comes to naming public buildings and facilities, said the Anglo Cel. A subcommittee of the North Eastern Health Board has taken the trouble to suggest guidelines for the naming of buildings or units. "In" are local place names, natural features or historical connections.

Also "in" are deceased or living people or groups who contributed to the health services or well being of the community and "members of the board or their staff who had made a significant contribution to the health services".

Cavan residents feel queasy about the prospect of the country's animal skulls, brains, eyes and spinal cords being rendered at the Monery By Products plant at Crossdoney. The Department of Agriculture has appointed it the State's sole rendering facility for the Specific Risk Materials under the Diseases of Animals (BSE) Order of 1997.

The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't see the plant as a danger to public health. "However, research in the UK has shown the presence of prisons in the gases of rendering plants where trials were carried out on the specific disposal of BSE infected materials," said the newspaper.

Every town wants its own land mark development project and some interesting proposals were debated around the country last week. Mayo could get its own £4 million "superbowl" if Claremorris Athletic Club has its way. The plan for the 6,000 seat indoor entertainment and athletics arena in Claremorris has already been the subject of "top level talks" with the Minister of State for Sport, Mr Bernard Allen, said the Connaught Telegraph. Consultants are conducting a feasibility study and £250,000 has already been raised locally.

The heart of Athlone could be "dramatically altered" if a controversial "millennium type" development for the Church of Ireland "grounds in Church Street and the UDC Car Park goes ahead, said the Westmeath Independent.

"Mixed feelings" have greeted the developer's proposal which would involve repositioning the church and rebuilding it at a different angle to the street. This substantial redevelopment of the town centre would involve setting the buildings back from the main street to create a new town square.

Ballymena's mayor, Mr James Currie, has described a "huge" Government grant of £3.5 million for a local museum as "a dream and a promise fulfilled". The Ballymena Guardian said it was 130 years since Sir Shafto Adair, who was to become Lord Waveney, first mooted the notion of a museum for the people of the borough.

Then there are the developments which people realise, too late, that they do not want. Residents of Selskar, Co Wexford, fear becoming the "Leeson Street of the county", said the Wexford Echo.

"In the past five years the North End has been populated by three night clubs, new late night restaurants and an explosion in taxi offices to cater for thousands."

When Wexford Corporation facilitated the injection of such business under the Urban Renewal Scheme, no thought was given to the impact of this new social life on residents, said the Echo.

A local councillor in Kildare believes more local authority houses should go to "traditional families". Sean O Fearghail thinks housing estates should be integrated "where children can see mothers and fathers who go to work and mothers and fathers who are married." He added. "While we [must] recognise there are increases in the numbers of dysfunctional families in society, we cannot allow council housing estates to be populated totally by families that are in that type of situation."

Two Wicklow men accused of an offence under the Wildlife Act had the case against them dismissed, the Wicklow People reported. The men, found "dazzling deer" with lamps in the forest at 11 p.m., convinced the judge that they were looking at them, not hunting them.