The melodious songbirds of spring are under threat as an illegal trade in songbirds "takes on a sinister EU note", said the Connaught Telegraph. Goldfinches, linnets and other songbirds are being trapped illegally in the State to service a growing market in Mediterranean countries where songbird populations have been seriously depleted.
The Andersonstown News wondered why St Patrick's Day in Belfast could not be celebrated by having the Tricolour flying beside the Union Jack on the dome of Belfast City Hall. "There is no sense in trying to kid ourselves that the Shankill will meet the Falls and march hand-in-hand to the city hall on St Patrick's Day," it said. However, the fact that the BBC barely covered St Patrick's Day and that it was still not a public holiday did not help efforts to make it an intercommunity event.
It added that Lord Mayor, David Alderdice, deserved credit for his decision to proceed with the launch of the St Patrick's Day parade festivities in the immediate aftermath of being refused funding by Belfast City Council.
The party spirit was rather lacking on Ballymena Borough Council, which has called time on a planned 24-hour millennium bash on New Year's Eve, said the Ballymena Guardian. Fearing public drunkenness and road accidents, the council rejected the recommendation by a British government consultation paper for all-night opening of public houses and clubs.
There would be "adequate time within the existing licensing laws to celebrate the millennium without going to excess", said the "city fathers".
The Leinster Leader's writer Petrina Vousden sent home a scoop from the Lebanon - "Soldiers face tea bag crisis!" Supplies of tea for members of the 84th Irish Battalion are down to just 10 days because of a bureaucratic foul-up at UN headquarters in New York.
You could buy a lot of tea bags with the property profits being made in Co Kildare. "Rezoning decision adds £65 million to land values," said the Leinster Leader. Kildare County Council has zoned over 500 acres for industrial use, mostly in the Naas area, over the past two weeks.
The Kildare Nationalist's headline went further. "Cllr offered `an envelope': Pandemonium as Power opens up plan controversy". An allegation by a Kildare Green Party councillor, Mr J.J. Power, that he was offered "an envelope" by a property owner during discussions on rezoning stunned local politicians at a recent council meeting and plunged Kildare into its own planning controversy, it said. The landowner at the centre of the controversy is to take legal action against Mr Power.
More council "uproar" in the Tipperary Star: former Fianna Fail TD Cllr Sean Byrne "clashed furiously" with South Tipperary's county manager, Mr Ned Gleeson, telling him "do not poke lies down my throat".
During angry exchanges on the budget for roads expenditure, Mr Byrne also took a sideswipe at the council chairman, accusing him of sidelining him. "You went all over the table and nearly out the door . . . In recent years, I was sidelined, bogged down, destroyed."
The Munster Express had its own tale of frayed tempers at Tramore Town Commissioners. "No boxing, foxing as tempers rise: challenge to step outside following messenger boy slur". Mr Billy Hutchinson, a former Munster boxing champion, directed "a Mike Tyson-like stare" at Mr Eddie Walsh, who touched a raw nerve when he accused Mr Hutchinson of being a messenger boy for Minister of State Mr Martin Cullen. When Mr Walsh repeated the slur, Mr Hutchinson again asked him to step outside, an invitation which Mr Walsh declined.
The Western People said Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn TD was "stalked" by RTE'S Prime Time at a funeral in Castlebar. She was among mourners leaving the church when a TV crew, including a cameraman with extended microphone, passed between the funeral and mourners to get shots for a documentary on Ms Cooper-Flynn's father, EU commissioner Mr Padraig Flynn.
A "shocked" local businessman, Mr Sean Horkan, said: "It was a great gathering of every stratum of Castlebar society and there in the middle of it came this camera with a man behind it . . . My own view, and the general opinion of those around me, was that if this is the level to which RTE has sunk, it is a poor outlook for society and God help the country."