If this came through my door, I wouldn't be too impressed. The Lisburn Echo should probably be…read morerenamed the Lisburn Shadow...it's clearly the skinniest newspaper in existence (though it did come in handy for batting away wasps), with a mere sixteen pages (including the back and front covers). Of these sixteen pages, one page is dedicated to a secondary school advertisement, three pages are all about cars, there's a page for public notices, another page for services, and a lonely hearts page (or whatever they're calling them these days). So, if my calculations are correct, that leaves nine pages of news, all of which are taken up by at least half a page of adverts, meaning that there are approximately four to five full pages of just ads (I'll go with four seeing as I'm generous like that). There's also an entire page dedicated to the Hillsborough Oyster Festival (or 'Osyter' as it is now apparently spelt). So, we're now left with four pages of news, including a story on the huge amount of waste produced by the UK despite recycling, an article on 'Used Clothing Co.', and a story on the first Dobbie's Garden World to open in the UK. Exciting. Well, at least it's free...

I'd never heard of this newspaper before, which I felt was a bit odd, given the 'Ulster' part of…read morethe title. What is even odder, however, is the fact that it's a Lisburn-based paper essentially all about Lisburn. Yep, there's the story about residents battling against the Lisburn Tesco extension plans, a report on how one of the finalists of the Rose of Tralee competition works in Lisburn (despite hailing from Newry), and an article on a guy from Lisburn who has been chosen to be a rep for Bushmill's Whisky. Oh, wait...what's this? A page five story on how a Lisburn student is off to spend six months on a placement in Florida's Disney World Resort (as part of her Travel and Tourism Foundation Degree) seems to fit in with the 'norm' of the rest of these stories, but the picture beside it tells a slightly different story. It's off two girls (one of which is the Lisburn girl), and a guy. And I just so happen to know the guy. What are the chances?! He's not even from Lisburn (though he isn't included in the report, just the picture), but I still found this pretty darn hilarious. The rest of the newspaper is solely focused on Lisburn news, although an article on A Level results does branch out to include a report on Hunterhouse College (it's in south Belfast...I know, my sister went there). Pages upon pages of what's been happening in Lisburn - The Property News informs the reader of houses for sale / to let in Lisburn, the Lonely Hearts ads are all about singles based in Lisburn, and the sports section provides accounts of Lisburn-related activities. Someone please tell me...why the heck is it called the 'Ulster Star'?!