The Internet has claimed yet another casualty. VirtualIreland.com, a community website based in New York, is going out of business.

Virtual Communities Inc. which operates five ethnic websites - VirtualJerusalem.com, VirtualIreland.com, VirtualHolyLand.com, VirtualItaly.com and VirtualIndia.com - is seeking buyers for the sites.

Virtual Communities has also given notices of dismissal to 50 employees, 35 of whom work at 589 Eighth Avenue in New York.

Virtual Communities was set up in August 1996 by Mr Avi Moskowitz, a Brooklyn-born man who moved to Israel with his wife and children.

His aim was to develop, acquire and operate Web based communities targeted to ethnic and affinity groups in the US. Virtual Communities is based in New York although it has offices in Israel. Those who are losing their jobs include editors, marketing and sales personnel along with technical support staff in both countries. Apparently the sites were not generating enough revenue for the company.

Virtual Communities has already struck a deal to acquire a 20 per cent stake in an Israeli software company called Cortext Ltd which it hopes will generate more revenue. Virtual Communities' stock price has been languishing around $2. The company went public on the Nasdaq on November 1st.

Virtual Ireland was launched on St Patrick's Day in 1999. Like the other community sites, it aggregates special interest news and features, provides chat rooms, forums and genealogy in an effort to build an Irish community online. Irish news on the site comes through content agreements with Appletree Press in Belfast and the Irish Emigrant in Galway. Adlib Eaterie, a food site, offers a restaurant guide and recipes.

Travel tips come from the Lonely Planet. Mr Brian Rohan, a former journalist with the Irish Voice newspaper in New York and a former presenter on RTE television's Stateside series about the Irish in the US, was editor-in-chief of VirtualIreland's staff of three.