Soapboxes and megaphones are all very well, but if there's an issue close to your heart, one of the best perches from which to shout your message is the Net. Web sites dedicated to single issues and causes are proliferating on the Web, with Yahoo! alone listing more than 2,700 sites in dozens of eyecatching categories, from "Fat Acceptance" to Xenotransplantation.
But despite the exotic elements, single-issue Web sites cover a large range of serious issues, including genetic engineering, human rights and global warming. And it's not only the Americans who are spreading their views on the Web. Some of the oldest and best-known Web sites dedicated to single issues originate in this country. "Many of these sites cover issues that the mainstream media won't deal with because they don't have the time, or they don't have the interest," says Denise Cox, webmaster of the Animal Welfare Resource Site of Ireland (http://indigo.ie/dcox/animal/). "People are finding that this is a powerful way to reach a lot of like-minded people, and also to reach people who could become like-minded through the information."
Among the growing number of Irish "issue sites", there are ones explaining how there are special ambulances in Ireland to ferry your sick horse to the vet, or that Alpine flowers grow alongside Mediterranean orchids in the Burren. Or that the sarcophagus encasing the disastrous Chernobyl reactor from 1986 is full of holes, some big enough to drive a car through. . .
Whether a supporter or a sceptic, you may be amazed at what you'll find if you spend some time on the following campaign sites.
Environmentalists
One of Ireland's most vocal groups on the Net is the Burren Action Group (ireland.iol.ie/burrenag), which has been fighting since 1991 to block the construction of a visitors' centre in Mullaghmore.
With the help of acting secretary Michael Miller, the group has used the site to attract supporters and to inform journalists and others following its campaign. Visitors to the Web site can sign up for the group's Mullaghmore Acre scheme - a local farmer has donated an acre of Mullaghmore land to the cause, and anyone wanting to show their support can donate £30. All donors become registered members of the Burren Acre Company and receive a symbolic share certificate for one square yard of the acre.
Also on the theme of conservation is the Save Roundstone Bog campaign (www.anu.ie/wirl/roundstone/bog.htm), which opposes the Clifden airport which is planned for the bog in Derrygimlagh. The Web site includes the group's submission to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Sile de Valera, arguing that the planned development compromises "the very essence of Connemara's value". The site also has an extract from Tim Robinson's pensive tribute to the bog, taken from The Book of the Irish Countryside.
Animal welfare
If animals are where your sympathies lie, The Animal Welfare Resource of Ireland site should be a first stop on your tour. Denise Cox built the site when she realised there was no central place in Ireland to learn about groups and organisations who help animals. It includes material on rescue groups for everything from cats and dogs to bats and donkeys, information on how to be a responsible pet owner, and details of Irish and British quarantine laws. One thought-provoking section, "New ways of thinking", examines issues including vivisection, myths about spaying and neutering, and resources for people mourning the loss of pets.
East Timor
Also spreading its views online is The East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, which posts pictures and news about this former Portuguese colony which is now occupied by Indonesia. Group co-ordinator Tom Hyland works with Internet service provider Connect Ireland, which last year registered the then-unclaimed top level domain of ".tp" (or Timor Portugal). The group is also encouraghing visitors to register vanity email addresses with the .tp domain; watch out for more details at the East Timor Freedom Page (www.freedom.tp), where visitors can sign a petition, or donate an image to the "virtual quilt" in support of the cause.
Disabilities
For people with disabilities, DTour (ireland.iol.ie/infograf/ dtour) has a visitors guide to Ireland. The site, a boon for anyone - not just visitors - with disabilities, provides a countyclickable list of accessable accomodation, including hotels, guesthouses, farmhouses, self-catering accomodation and hostels. It also gives information on accessability of public transport, and a list of accessable toilets all over Ireland.
Chernobyl
Finally, and perhaps most famously, The Chernobyl Children's Project (www.aardvark.ie/ccp) has drawn thousands of visitors to its site, featuring monthly updated newsletters, heartwrenching paintings and poems by children of Belarus, and a downloadable movie clip from the documentary Black Wind, White Land - Living With Chernobyl. The site is also a central resource listing current and past fundraisers, plus updates and a voyage diary of Sail Chernobyl, the 26,000-mile voyage by the late TD Hugh Coveney's family from Cork, who are aiming to raise £1 million for the charity project.
Sheila McDonald is at smcdonal@iol.ie