The Mayo News believed that "the west's lack of clout at the Cabinet table was never more evident than in the scramble to parcel out the goodies as the decentralisation virus begins to bite with a vengeance. Government ministers have been falling over each other in their eagerness to devolve the institutions of State to their own home bailiwicks.
"The political kudos to be gained from netting a Department branch for the home town or village has outweighed any consideration as to the logic of locating central services in the most peripheral of venues."
"Public toilet is sex haunt," declared the Kilkenny People. "Concerned citizens told the People of their disgust at the happenings in the corporation toilets. The sex den is at the Market Yard toilets right at the pulse of commercial Kilkenny, just a few yards off High Street."
Sixty gay "regulars" are participating in a "sex club" involving boys as young as 14 and men in their 70s. The Kilkenny People alleged that the "guilty" included "well-known businessmen, sportsmen and a number of clergymen. Our sources say none of the clergymen are from Kilkenny," said the newspaper.
The Nationalist and Leinster Times reported on the "terrifying ordeal" of a woman motorist who was "persistently terrorised" in the early hours of the morning by a male motorist who chased her along the motorway from Dublin.
"He drove alongside me, flashed his lights and overtook a car every time I did. He came up so close to me, I thought he was going to bump me. I was scared but I knew I just had to keep going," she said. The chase began at Newlands Cross, Dublin, and ended in Castledermot, where the woman managed to telephone her father. A man was later arrested.
The Drogheda Independent commented on the "dire" state of the River Boyne, highlighted by the Three Rivers Report, showing a "steady and serious decline in the quality of water". The report, which states that 70 per cent of the Boyne was polluted and that 50 per cent of municipal waste water in the Boyne area was pumped untreated into estuaries, "doesn't exactly make for pleasant reading". "It is appalling to think that untreated sewage can be found in rivers, which are a vital natural amenity and which are a vital source of drinking water."
The Kildare Nationalist warned that "Kildare will have no clean water for drinking and all fish in the rivers will be dead within 10 years, unless something is done quickly to combat the pollution". The manager of the Three Rivers Project, Mr Ciaran O'Keefe, told the newspaper that phosphorus from several forms of pollutants were choking the rivers and that there was already a huge problem in Blessington Lakes, the largest water supply in the country.
Decentralisation continued to be an important theme among leader writers. The Fingal Independent predicted "a far more effective [health] service" with the official launch of the Northern Area Health Board, which will be based in Swords. Fingal County Council's offices will also be based in Swords from next summer.
"At a time when North County Dublin is growing at a tremendous rate, as evidenced by the decisions of major companies to locate here, it is a positive step to have both organisations situated at the heart of the communities they both serve," it commented.
The spreading of kudos was certainly between the lines of a story in the Roscommon Champion. It stated that a PD councillor, Mr Hugh Lynn, is arguing that instead of attracting one Government Department to one location in the county, "Roscommon should market itself to central government as a three-site location for one full Government Department".
"Considering the PD leader Tanaiste Mary Harney's enthusiasm for decentralisation, a cynic would suspect that Lynn's comments were stage-managed from the top, the newspaper stated. "We will worry little about such cynicism if substantial decentralisation of Government jobs comes Roscommon's way later this summer," it decided.
The Western People revealed that traditional names are making a comeback for "confirmation". Names in vogue are Mary, Patrick, John, Michael, Margaret, Anne, Sarah, Maureen, Tom and James. The trend has begun in Claremorris, where Father Fergal Cunnane suggested that young people choose popular names in their family trees or the names of saints. This makes "a welcome change from taking names of film stars or sports stars", stated the newspaper.