FBI shuts down Real IRA website

A radio programme broadcast from New York considered sympathetic to the Real IRA has been forced to close down its website by the FBI because of concern that it encourages terrorism.

"I think what is going on is being done out of fear," said John McDonagh, who is the host of the radio show. Broadcast every Saturday afternoon across the New York metropolitan area, home to a very large Irish American community, it is called Radio Free Eireann.

Mr McDonagh said he planned to continue with the radio show, which has frequently interviewed people sympathetic to the Real IRA as well as republican activists who have been refused visas to visit the United States.

The website that accompanied the programme, www.iraradio.com, has been shuttered.

The owner of the site, Travis Towle, told the Daily News in New York that the internet provider that carried the site, had decided to shut it down after being approached by the FBI. The provider was allegedly told to jettison the site or face having all its assets seized.

"They just yanked us," he said.

The site contained archive material from previous broadcasts of the radio programme. According to Mr McDonagh, the "ira" in its name stood for Irish Republican Activist and was not meant to imply connections with the IRA itself or any of splinter organisation.

The FBI has refused to comment on the silencing of the site. It clearly caught the attention, however, of the authorities in the United States as they clamp down on anything that may have some terrorist connection in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"If I was running a Taliban website 15 years ago, I would be considered a patriot helping the American cause," Mr McDonagh commented. "Today, I would be considered a traitor. It's getting to be difficult to predict who the government is going to call a terrorist."

- INDEPENDENT