In an extraordinary front-age editorial, the Wexford People claimed refugees in designer clothes were eating in restaurants and living in exclusive apartments courtesy of the Irish taxpayer. It also claims they are digging up fields to steal vegetables, frightening old women living alone and attempting to seduce and impregnate impressionable young Irish girls because a baby would bring a passport.

The People's editorial, entitled "Refugees: it's time to end the fiasco", appeared to be based on hearsay rather than facts, and seemed prepared to run the risk of being accused of inciting hatred.

It claimed racial tensions were nearing "boiling point" and that anger could "spill over into the streets".

And in a bizarre conflict between objective reporting and emotive editorial opinion, the newspaper made claims about the asylum "crisis" in its editorial which were contradicted in a fact-based page four report.

The editorial gave the clear impression that a cash-strapped health board was closing hospital wards and failing to meet its obligations to the community while handing out generous payments to refugees.

Yet on page four the newspaper quoted a health board spokeswoman as stating refugees were "no financial burden on the health board" and that this public view was "totally incorrect". Payments were in fact covered by the Department of Social Welfare.

The editorial began by paying lip service to tolerance, stating: "Over the past few months Wexford has shown its capacity to welcome and care for asylum-seekers in a generous and compassionate way. "And that's how it should be because genuine refugees are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect and provided with the resources and opportunity to start a new life.

"However, the latest influx of asylum-seekers has brought public services in the town to breaking point and there is evidence of growing racial tensions.

"To say that the situation is rapidly reaching boiling point is no exaggeration . . .

"The State has encountered no difficulty finding the cash to enable health board officers to hand money to asylum-seekers in clothing, rent and supplementary benefit allowances at a time when the health board seems unable to discharge its primary responsibility, the provision of adequate health care for the people of the county . . .

"Equally, the Department of the Environment has no difficulty providing funds to Wexford Corporation to provide top-of-the-range accommodation for the Romanians at a time when cash cannot be found to build an adequate number of public authority houses in the town . . ."

The editorial rejected the gentle slap on the knuckles given to it by a local curate from the altar, warning instead that "when racial tensions spill over on to the streets it will be too late for the authorities to take action. The time to shout STOP is now."

The hint of threat was used to back up the People's call for a swift and radical overhaul of "the State's outdated procedures for dealing with asylum-seekers". It then echoed the popular "belief" - with no evidence to support it - that many asylum-seekers were not genuine.

"There is a growing belief that at least some of the asylum-seekers are arriving here as part of a pre-organised arrangement.

"This belief has been strengthened by the fact that a Romanian was heard protesting in the post office recently that £500 he had sent back to his home country had not arrived. How, one might well ask, could somebody in receipt of welfare benefits afford to send that amount of money back to their relatives at home?"

The Wexford People was unclear as to whether the Romanian was "heard" by a reporter or whether this "fact" was actually an anecdote being spread as part of an angry atmosphere in Wexford fuelled by bigotry.

A Donegal bride, Muriel Leeper, was "left heartbroken" when her American groom, Sean Underhill, was overcome with suspected salmonella food poisoning only moments after tying the knot, says the Donegal Democrat. The groom managed to say "I do" before being rushed to hospital, leaving Muriel to attend the wedding reception alone.

The image of Ireland of the welcomes didn't hold true for Nigel Taylor, an English visitor who had four alloy wheels stolen from his Peugeot 306 while it was parked outside the tourist office in Killarney, said the Kerryman. Asked if he would make a return visit to Ireland, he replied: "I don't know."