As the annual battle between Limerick and Cork for Christmas shoppers gets under way, it looks increasingly like another "no contest". Cork cannot compete with Limerick "either as a city or a shopping destination", bragged the Limerick Leader.
"As a city, admittedly, Cork does have a certain charm, even an architectural grandeur . . . But this is confined to a couple of city centre streets. Much of the rest is nondescript but a small and not insignificant portion comprises ugly hovels and shabby shops.
"The seediness of some of its northern approaches is like something out of Frank McCourt." Newcastle West has been targeted by Lidl, the German superstore, for a shop to be opened next summer. "A figure of £900,000 has been mentioned" as the price for a two-acre site near the main Limerick/Kerry road, reported the Leader.
Tipperary tipplers are "frothing" over an increase of 10p on the price of a pint. One scribe wrote to the Tipperary Star accusing publicans of "unadulterated greed". Wicklow publicans have dropped their own "New Year bombshell" by agreeing to close at 6 p.m. on December 31st, said the Wicklow People.
Some of the New Year's partygoers will be happy to be out in the cold. Matt Molloy, the Mayo musician, still has not been reunited with his stolen flute so he'll be playing a new one when he joins The Chieftains and Art Garfunkel to start the millennium in the Antarctic, stated the Connaught Telegraph. The musicians will be entertaining some of the world's wealthiest people - including Kissingers and Kennedys - aboard a luxury liner.
The Kilkenny People announced a "booze blitz" with the words: "This Christmas if you drink and drive, you are likely to be caught." A Garda spokesman told the newspaper that "this year we will make it even harder for them, with more checkpoints operating at different times during the day and night." The Western People announced a "Garda Christmas crackdown" which will double the number of planned checkpoints from last year's figure of 1,600 to 3,200.
The Nationalist and Munster Advertiser described "a huge sense of relief" among the family of Ms Nora Wall and the Nire Valley and Ballymacarbry communities in response to the DPP's full acceptance that the former nun and her co-accused, Mr Paul McCabe, were entitled to be presumed innocent of all charges.
In a week when emergency personnel plucked an infant from a burning house in Castlebar, Co Mayo, the Connaught Telegraph appealed to the Government to purchase new ambulance fleets. In Castlebar, post office workers are staging Christmas work stoppages because their request for better accommodation was turned down by the GPO, said the Connaught Telegraph.
Support is gathering in north Cork for a campaign to boycott Coillte Christmas trees because Coillte owns the three sites shortlisted by Cork County Council as potential locations for a superdump, said the Corkman.
In Co Clare, controversy continues over a £300 million tripartite waste management alliance involving Clare, Limerick and Kerry which would involve incineration, stated the Clare Champion. Green Party councillor Mr Donal O Bearra claimed both local and regional authorities "can't be trusted".
Members of a special committee of Kilkenny County Council have become "rubber stamps", said the Kilkenny People. Things have got so bad that members of the county council's higher education grants committee were no longer being given the names of those who receive grants.