{"id":868,"date":"2012-06-15T08:34:54","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T07:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=868"},"modified":"2012-06-15T08:34:54","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T07:34:54","slug":"the-long-awaited-and-many-times-delayed-website-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=868","title":{"rendered":"The Long Awaited……And Many Times Delayed….Website Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Long Awaited…………And Many Times Delayed….
\nWebsite Launch<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Thursday 14th<\/sup> June seen the launch of the longkeshinsideout<\/em> website.\u00a0 It was intended to be a small low key affair and invites were sent to around 50 people.\u00a0 Almost 70 people turned up at Farset for a presentation that lasted around an hour and a half.\u00a0 It was certainly encouraging to see such a good crowd and especially so to witness people from many different corners of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 From an individual ex combatant point of view there was encouraging representation and also from the perspective of different groups and organisations.\u00a0 Apart from this it was also heartening to have present those who have earned the title of \u201ccritical friends \u201c.\u00a0 Conspicuous amongst the latter were Roy Garland, Chris Hudson, Conal Parr, and Gary Mason\u2014a positive sign and one that promotes the notion that perhaps we are assembling a vehicle that can facilitate many passengers\u2014many from different backgrounds.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A somewhat delayed start then due to a little\u2014more than welcome\u2014overcrowding and an initial overview by William \u2014outlining the rationale behind establishing such a webpage.\u00a0 Uppermost in his summary was the need to invalidate the now well versed and equally well worn argument that portrays us as Neanderthal\u2019s who cannot string a sentence together and prefer to be dripping in jewellery rather than charm.\u00a0 He touched on the other age old adage that Republicans are writing us out of our history when in fact the truth is that we have consistently failed to write ourselves in.\u00a0 This website, William continued can give us a platform to launch in article form\u2014or by writing creatively\u2014by political commentary\u2014or merely by sharing or interacting with others.\u00a0 The skills required were in abundance within the room and further afield but to date there had been reluctance or a lack of confidence that prevented some from participating, William concluded.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bobby continued in the same vein by giving a short presentation of the site that allowed people to see\u2014for the first time in many cases\u2014what we have achieved so far.\u00a0 He struck a very resonant chord in showing a photograph\u2014from Compound 21 around the early 80\u2019s\u2014where he demonstrated that out of the 9 people in the snap many had went on to gain fantastic academic achievements\u2014or be instrumental in many ways post conflict.\u00a0 Throughout Bobby\u2019s presentation and subsequent input from Billy and Robert the theme remained the same.\u00a0 We have a viable and new\u2014to us at least\u2014podium which, if utilised properly has the potential to further our assertions that we have the requisite skills that can show Loyalism in a more positive light.\u00a0 The observations and comments from the critical friends also give reasons to be optimistic and many of their visions and ideas are certainly worth thinking about.\u00a0 The conclusion must be that we have produced a worthwhile webpage\u2014it\u2019s an excellent idea\u2014but can only fully realise the huge potential if accessed and utilised by all of those it was created for.<\/p>\n

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