Trauma as black bunnies run riot in Castlebar

BETWEEN the locals "terrorised out of their wits" and the "black bunnies running riot", the Connaught Telegraph's readership has been having a traumatic month of August. The black bunnies in question have been having a field day in back gardens in the area of Castlebar," the newspaper said.

"The rodents are multiplying and are gobbling up crops at Moneen.

"It is at dawn and dusk that they are most active and locals are anxious that their numbers do not swell any further."

A pest control project is on the way. The same could be said regarding the foreign tourists who have been terrorising local motorists by inadvertently driving on the wrong side of the road, said the Connaught Telegraph.

Mayo TD Michael Ring said that following a spate of serious road traffic accidents involving continental drivers, he is initiating a "top level move" to stop the traffic headaches. He will be demanding that the Government introduce legislation requiring local authorities to erect signs on all country roads reminding foreign motorists which side of the road they should be driving on.

Either that, or we all start driving, on the right side of the road like the rest of Europe, he believes.

The autumn political season has started early for Fianna Fail in Sligo, with the "shock withdrawal of local doctor, Cllr Jimmy Devins, from next October's selection convention". Dr Devins had been regarded as a certainty to be selected for the next general election ticket and his withdrawal has several well known local party members "assiduously assessing the developing situation", said the Sligo Champion.

"Not all insane people are in asylums" announced the Nationalist of Carlow, Kildare and Laois. In an editorial, it claimed that "the banning by RTE and the Independent Radio and Television Commission (TRTC) of an anti abortion ad is extraordinary, and is taking political correctness to laughable extremes.

"The advertisement shows a baby lying above the message: `Kill her now ... it's murder. Kill her before birth .. it's abortion.'"

The "extraordinary power" given to "one person or a handful of people to ban the ad raises serious questions of freedom of speech in this country," it believed. "What is at issue is not whether the advertisers message is right or wrong, but the right of free speech."

SIX months after the initial revelations about "Mad Cow Disease", the BSE crisis continues to make headlines. The Offaly Independent said that farmers in Offaly are still facing a huge 20 per cent cut in income from beef cattle this year and therefore want supermarkets and butchers to cut the cost of beef to make it more attractive to consumers.

North of the Border, Fermanagh's "cattle men" are caught in the middle of the "cull row war" between Northern Ireland Meat Exporters, who operate the abattoirs, and the Intervention Board, said the Fermanagh Herald. A local Sinn Fein councillor and farmer, Gerry McHugh, told the newspaper that the decision to suspend slaughtering of cattle over 30 months old now meant that the agricultural industry was facing its worst crisis since 1974.

"The whole economy of Fermanagh stands to lose millions" as along with cattle farmers, it affected businesses engaged in farm services, such as hauliers, packaging plants, manufacturers of by products, building and engineering industries and banks, he said.

Was it the spirit of little Anne Flynn or a trick of the light? The Munster Express asked its readers to decide. On its front page and in colour it printed a picture of a secluded wooded area haunted by, some say, the "gentle ghost" of a little girl who died 27 years ago.

The picture was taken at the site of the house, now demolished, where she spent her short life. Her father says that the picture, which was taken by the man who now lives there, strongly resembles his daughter and he is thinking of building a grotto or shrine on the spot.

It is a "wuff life" for Blackie, who was skipping playfully in the Atlantic Ocean at Castlegregory, Co Kerry when the mobile phone rang. Blackie had won a trip to Disneyland in the Clane GAA fundraiser.

Writing in the Kildare Nationalist John Roddy said that "Wuff, wuff, hurrah" was the sound heard down the line as Blackie's owner, Ms Joan Ryder of Clane, took the message for her pet. "It now appears, however, that while her name was on the winning ticket, a trip to the USA may be well behind this myopic old lady of the canine world and, in keeping with the GAA, a sub may have to be sprung from stand by."

Presenting Blackie with her prize, Clane GAA club chairman, Frank McLoughlin, observed that "it's ironic to see an All Black scooping the big prize in the All Whites Monster Draw. It's certainly a dog's life."