Republican News · Thursday 11 April 2002

Two progressive websites launched

Tar Isteach

"It's like a training course in how to use the Internet - with many links to national and international world politics," said Peter Graves at the launch of the new Tar Isteach website. "We hope it will be a really useful site for people to use."

Tar Isteach, the republican ex-prisoner group in Dublin, launched its website (www.republicanpowsdublin.ie) with a Good Friday party for former POWs and friends. The site includes a Tar Isteach Beag spot (constructed entirely by an extremely talented young secondary school student, Steven O'Reilly); links to Spark, the Republican Youth magazine; and other prisoner magazines. There are interactive links to promote Tar Isteach's online republican jobs club, its regular hill walks, its politial discussions and other projects.

With the aid of a grant from the People in Need Trust, Peter Graves put in a lot of time training the Tar Isteach team to get their site up and running. "I hope people build on the site and take part in the discussions," he said. "There is room to discuss any theme people choose. It only takes a minute to type in and upload your comment. Now is the time for ideas and talk - for people to debate together their ideas, their views. I hope republicans use the site, for its links to the world we live in and for discussions of the ideas we hope to live by."

Indymedia Ireland

First of the links on the Tar Isteach site is to the new Indymedia Ireland site (www.indymedia.ie), which had its launch last Saturday. "A brilliant site with immediate stories, pictures and even sound recordings of current news in Ireland, and links to all the Indymedia sites around the world," comments one enthusiast.

Indymedia first became famous through the anti-globalisation protests, where eyewitness reports of activities and exposing often vicious police brutality against demonstrators was uploaded onto the net within minutes of those events for all to read.

The most distinctive feature of the Indymedia site is its refusal to censor what people want to say about what is happening or what they see with their own eyes. "It is the very essence of the Internet in a world sickened and dumbed down by CNN and Sky," said another old hand at Internet communications. "It is a great event that Ireland now has its own site for independent media. It's now up to people to use it."