Bearainfo Launched 

Denis Regan, Chairman of Beara Action Group, welcomed everyone to the launch of this site at the Ford Ri Hotel on June 3rd last.

Mary Martin-Sullivan, Business Development Officer for the Group, (which is grant-aided by FAS) outlined that this Community Project was first and foremost to promote Beara for all the Products, Services and Talent it had to offer.  The inclusion of an on-line newspaper, which will be updated weekly, will help keep Beara people throughout the Globe informed of what is happening at home.  Larger news articles will also be featured from time to time and we will be enlisting the help of  eligible Students on the Summer Job Student Scheme to help us on this feature. Any student who wishes to get involved in this project, please contact the Beara Action Group Office at (027) 70880 or email us at bearainfo@eircom.net to discuss further.   In the Autumn, through the participation of Beara Community School, it will be the transition year students who will be assisting this development.  In return they will  experience journalism and they can see if they wish to develop this career in the future.  Also, Terry Byrne, of The Beara Computer Centre will hold work-shops for these students from time to time on Computers and Web Design. For this project to succeed, she added,  it requires participation and support from the whole community as it will in return benefit the entire peninsula. It was the desire of the launch to show people what the Internet can do to promote the area and the businesses/services/talents also. A Business and Services Directory for the whole peninsula was being compiled at the moment.   Mary also stated that there would be intense marketing done on the site so that the advertisers would get the best value for their money.  She ended by saying that ideas would be welcome and that new items should be forwarded to the office for inclusion on the newspaper.

Terry Byrne, who designed the web-site stressed that it was only in its infancy and there would be amendments and lots of additions to come yet.  He stated that the Internet was the way to go to get ahead as it was the fastest and cheapest mode of communication today and the amount of users were growing with each and every day.  A Games Review Site is also one of the features available on the site at present which is aimed for the teenage market.  They can receive and offer reviews, cheats on various games.  A Message Board (User Forum) is currently being worked on to be included which will allow people to leave messages, requests answers to questions etc.  A Guest Book is almost ready to be put up.  Web Sites were being lauched every day, but a lot of these are just left there and not updated.  The fact that this site has an On-Line Newspaper is in itself of tremendous value to the advertisers as people will return time and time again to see what has been added.  It will also encourage them to talk about the site to their colleagues and friends and word of mouth is the biggest marketing tool there is.  If everyone reading this article passes on the website address to just one person, they in turn passes it on and so on and on.

Cllr. Noel Harrington, before officially launching the site, praised the work that had gone into the project to date and said that from what he saw was a very comprehensive site even though it was in its infancy.  Noel added that Beara was on the periphery of the periphery, being 80 miles from Cork and 250 miles from Dublin, but technology such as the Internet enables people to source and transmit information so easily.  This therefore was a huge asset and should be built upon, especially in communities like ours.  Finally he wished the venture every success and deemed the site officially open.