NI Paper Review: Skies 'democratised' in Ryanair row

"Single-digit jail terms 'encourage' bombers," is the lead headline in the Newsletter, a publication celebrating its 280th birthday this week.

The headline reflects the view of an IRA victim after two men from County Meath, Darren Poleon, 43, from Lightown in Kells and Brian Walsh, 35, from Drumree in Dunshaughlin were sentenced at Belfast Crown Court.

The pair, who planted a dissident republican bomb at a hotel in Londonderry, were given 10-year sentences on Thursday - with five to be spent in prison and five on licence.

Claudy Bomb survivor Mary Hamilton said the sentences would act as an encouragement to would-be bombers.

The Northern Ireland edition of the Daily Mirror leads with the same story, slamming the would-be bombers as evil.

The Mirror also has a fascinating story on "Fat Test Dummies" in its inside pages, showing a rubber dummy of a rather large gentleman being rescued from a road traffic accident.

The purpose of the 25st dummy is to train emergency responders how to deal with an obese accident victim.

The Irish News leads with a relatively local story - the chief executive of Mid and East Antrim council, Anne Donaghy, has written to 40 councillors advising them not to speak to the media after a court heard she confronted her elderly father over a land dispute.

The paper says it has seen the email, in which Ms Donaghy tells councillors the allegations made in court are "untrue", adding that she and her siblings "have been estranged from my father for many years".

The Irish News also reports that Mid and East Ulster council have denied that any member of its staff posed as a BBC reporter in order to obtain details of the case.

An unnamed freelance reporter has alleged they were contacted by someone claiming to be from the BBC - but who could not provide a BBC email address - to obtain their court copy from the case, which had in fact already been provided to the BBC.

In The Irish News' opinion pages, veteran columnist Alex Kane asks: "Why does Irish [language] issue now dominate Sinn Féin?"

The unionist commentator asks why Irish "now predominates and eclipses every other issue" given that, in his view, Sinn Féin "didn't seem unduly concerned about lack of progress on the issue between 2005 and 2016".

Incidentally, the News Letter prints an interesting letter from a Mr Tom Ferguson of Ballymoney.

Mr Ferguson promotes the view that a Swizz style canonisation of Northern Ireland, often cited as a potential danger of Irish language legislation, rather than be a negative thing "might well be the solution we need" to solve political stalemate.

The Belfast Telegraph leads with the story of a Belfast mother whose life has been ruined after losing all of her sons to suicide.

"I have no sons left, my heart is torn away," is the evocative front-page headline.

Stephen Ferrin took his own life 12 days ago, while his two brothers also took their own lives in the past six years.

Their mother, Patricia Ferrin, describes the horror of finding Stephen and says more needs to be done to help for people with mental health issues.

The Telegraph's columnist Fionola Meredith has written a defence of budget airline Ryanair - currently embroiled in controversy after cancelling thousands of flights to try and sort out problems after it "messed up" the planning of pilot holidays.

Fionola Meredith acknowledges the situation is not good, especially for irate passengers whose flights have been cancelled.

However the commentator is "still cheering for Ryanair".

She says the "cheapness" of Ryanair has allowed her "and millions of others, to take trips we could never previously afford".

"Budget airlines have democratised the skies," she writes.