In this week's Westmeath Independent

This week's edition of the Westmeath Independent is on sale now and contains 40 pages of the best local news, sport and photography. Our featured stories include: * Westmeath GAA mourns the passing of sporting legend Páidí Ó Sé. Articles by our sports editor Kieran Galvin and Gerry Buckley (in Ventry) reflect on his legacy. * We talk to the 16-year-old student from Our Lady's Bower in Athlone who stepped out on the red carpet at the premiere of The Hobbit in London! * Ericsson in Athlone announces compulsory job cuts. * We have a report and photos from the touching ceremony to mark the unveiling of a new waterside memorial garden at Coosan Point. * We have reports from last week's sitting of Athlone District Court, including a case in which Judge Seamus Hughes referred to a female defendant as "a pure tinker" * There is a report and photos from the turning of the sod ceremony to mark the start of the building project for the new Athlone Community College. * We feature Christmas messages from local troops in Lebanon. * There are photo spreads from the 'Storytime at Athlone Library' event, the Christmas demonstration at Fernhill Garden Centre, the opening of Club Viva in Athlone, and the presentation of awards to children involved in the 'One Book One Athlone' project. * And, for the week's that's in it, we have two pages of Christmas cards made by pupils in St Joseph's NS, Summerhill, and we interviewed Santa Claus himself for our Independent People series! All this and more in this week's paper, which available in local outlets and can also be accessed in the ePaper format (for more on this option, see: http://www.westmeathindependent.ie/epaper#undefined)