What the papers say

Journalist Andy Wood takes a look at Wednesday's morning newspapers.

The start of the New Year is covered from a variety of angles in today's papers.

The Irish News lead story reminds readers that while 2001 may be history, sectarianism here sadly is not.

The paper details the story of Catholic grandmother Marian Kane whose home in the Whitewell Road area of Belfast was attacked on New Year's day.

Mrs Kane is pictured holding her nine-month-old grandson Sean under one arm, in her other hand is the rock with which her front door brick was attacked.

She tells the paper it is the seventh attack on her home since July and she is determined to get out.

Euro

By contrast, the News Letter's front page has a commercial ring to it, reports from Northern Ireland's border towns where the tills now contain pounds, punts and, of course, the new euro.

The News Letter says people in Newry were still "eyeing euro notes with wary eyes yesterday" at the same time the Sainsbury's store in the Quay's shopping centre was accepting payment and giving change (both in euros).

Both southern papers, the Irish Times and the Irish Independent, choose the euro launch for their front page leads.

The Independent leads its coverage with a picture of Taoiseach Bertie Aherne, calculator at the ready, paying for groceries with the new currency at his local shop in Drumcondra and says the Republic's Central Bank is predicting a 600 million euro profit from the changeover.

Compare and contrast with another report in the Independent, this time from its Paris correspondent.

Banks

He reports the words of the French Finance Minister Minister Laurent Fabius that the euro will not bring inflation with it.

But then, whoops, the same story says it now costs the equivalent of six francs 50 to use the public toilets at the Gare du Nord station (compared with five francs) and 13 francs, instead of ten, to light a candle at Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Irish Times front page eurocoverage has a rare picture, a bank manager (in this case Hugh O'Donnel of the Central Bank) giving something away for free - glasses of champagne to customers queuing to get their hands on the new notes.

While the Times' front page story looks beyond all the hype and photocalls and warns that today will see the first real test for the euro as people go back to work and the big financial institutions re-open.

Delays on the buses and trains and lengthy queues at local banks are in prospect, the paper warns.