THE Orange Order may be flooded with membership applications but organisers of a Derry festival are finding it hard to get unionists to take to the streets.

The organisers of next week's Derry Gay Pride Festival say there is a reluctance to acknowledge that there are gay people who are Protestant, according to the Derry Journal.

Ms Dawn Pervis, of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), will deliver the inaugural North-West Freedom Address at the week-long festival, which starts on July 4th. Mr James Grant, of the gay organisation Foyle Friend, said Ms Pervis's attendance was a "great coup".

Ms Pervis told the newspaper people should be sharing and celebrating diversity instead of isolating and, ostracising. "We are a changing society, where individuals demand equality, whatever their diversity. It is time the old unionist mould was broken, the dinosaurs made extinct and the `no-no, never-never' brigade gagged."

Calls for gagging of another sort are reported on the front page of the Derry Journal. The recently-elected Ulster Unionist MP for West Tyrone, Mr William Thompson, wants Sinn Fein spokespersons to be banned from the air following the IRA's killing of two RUC officers in Lurgan, Co Armagh.

Mr Thompson's call for a return of the broadcast ban, lifted after the IRA ceasefire in 1994, was backed by the DUP's Mr Gregory Campbell, but rejected by Mr Mark Durkan, from the SDLP, according to the newspaper.

The Sinn Fein MP, Mr Martin McGuinness, dismissed the call as an old, failed agenda. "It has not worked in the past, it will not work in the future, and serves only to maintain division."

While Cabinet positions are to be announced this week, the Kerryman reports that the recently-appointed Minister for Fun has already been busy on her portfolio. Ms Therese Davey, who was elected to the pose following a competition on RTE radio's Gay Byrne Show, paid a whistle-stop visit to Killarney, Dingle and Glenbeigh.

She said her political objectives include setting up a faculty of comedy where professional comedians can lecture people such as tax inspectors, traffic wardens and school principals. Another ambition is to slide down the bannisters in Government Buildings before setting up office with Dust in the Turkey.

Residents in Co Galway didn't need a visit from Ms Davey to have some fun, according to a report in the Connacht Tribune. They were dancing at the crossroads for the unveiling of a limestone plaque at the base of a large rock used before maps to identify the corner of four parishes.

The newspaper has a photograph of the impromptu dancing in front of the "parish unity rock" which bridges the parishes of Craughwell, Ardrahan, Ballinderreen and Clarinbridge

Residents of Dungloe Co Donegal, have little to smile about, according to the Donegal Democrat, which reports on the decay in dental care in the area.

Dungloe does not have enough dentists, according to the county's chief dental officer, Dr John Murray, who also complained that some of the dental equipment was 15 years old. "If we were talking about a 15-year-old car, most would consider it unacceptable," he told a monthly meeting of the North Western Health Board.

The newspaper also reports that the number of fatal accidents in Donegal is above the national average, according to statistics from the North Western Health Board.

AMONG the reasons cited for this are high levels of car ownership, road usage and a large number of new roads which allow for fast driving.

Being a good Samaritan doesn't pay, according to the Western People, which reports that a pensioner who raised the alarm about a bog fire found himself facing a £40 bill from the council for the fire brigade's call-out.

The case was raised at a meeting of Mayo County Council by Cllr Richard Finn, who said the council should have a more sensible and customer-friendly approach. The man was "driven demented with the number of letters he received demanding payment. He told me the next time there was a fire he would leave it to burn."

Feathers were also ruffled in Wicklow where pigeon-fanciers have lost some of their most valuable birds, according to the Wicklow People.

Preying peregrine falcons are being blamed for the disappearance of the pigeons, some worth hundreds of pounds, after their release in Scotland in the first national race of the pigeon-racing season. Just 30 out of 140 birds released by the Wicklow/Rathnew Pigeon Club returned from the race.

"Wicklow town man Alan Duffy, whose pigeon Batman had won a number of races, was particularly badly hit with the loss of this expensive bird," the newspaper reports.