Newspaper review: NI and Republic of Ireland stories

Journalist Fionola Meredith takes a look at what is making the headlines in Wednesday's newspapers.

The issue of super-injunctions remains in the headlines.

After Andrew Marr's confession about his own gagging order, the Independent asks - what now for the rich and famous who have bought anonymity with super-injunctions?

It highlights nine other cases - from top footballers to high-profile television presenters - where injunctions have been applied.

The Daily Mail also says pressure is growing on the former head of Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin, to drop his super-injunction -- the existence of which was reported in parliament last month. 'Time to come clean, Sir Fred', says the paper.

But where does the balance between privacy and free speech lie?

Matthew Norman, in the Independent, says that it's not just a case of hushing up salacious gossip.

He says that super-injunctions have been used to cover up the interests of foreign multinationals with much to hide - and that's an affront to democracy rather than taste.

For the Daily Mirror, it's simple - the public's right to know should trump every time.

Meanwhile, the Matt cartoon in the Daily Telegraph shows a father speaking to his son. He says, "I can't tell you about the birds and the bees - they've obtained a super-injunction".

The local papers report on Tuesday's parcel bomb alert.

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, a major security alert in Belfast was linked to the Neil Lennon bomb plot investigation, as army bomb officers were called to Musgrave Street police station to examine a suspect parcel bomb.

That's the top story in the Sun too, which says that the net is closing around the perpetrators - although police have been hampered by several fake devices.

There is enormous excitement in the papers ahead of the forthcoming Royal Wedding.

There are souvenir teapots in the Daily Express, a feature on 'how to get the princess look' in the Belfast Telegraph, and the Mirror and the Sun are among several papers to carry a picture of Kate Middleton at the wheel of her car, heading off to London to begin her final wedding preparations.

'No reverse gear now for Kate' is the Telegraph's headline.

The Irish News has a report on the west Belfast-born florist who is decking out Westminster Abbey on Friday.

We can expect eight 20 feet trees along the aisle, apparently.

And the Irish Independent appears to have caught Royal Wedding fever too.

Under the headline 'Up the royals', the paper says that people in the Irish Republic should admit that they are just as enthralled by these nuptials as the rest of the planet.

"It's like the Oscars meets Cinderella", says one Irish enthusiast.

It's left to the Guardian to introduce a note of gentle mockery in an alternative souvenir supplement.

In a specially-written poem, it declares "line the route and pray it's sunny, God bless this waste of public money".

Meanwhile, columnist Charlie Brooker looks forward to the inevitable endless loops of wedding footage - as he puts it, "spooling over and over an over with a newsreader burbling over the top, repeating and repeating and repeating until you feel that time itself is like a scratched CD doomed to echo the last few notes for ever and ever".