Setup JIRA to send messages via Pidgin or internal email. External email notifications not allowed.

[Tom Sayers]

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are not allowed to send JIRA notifications to to external email accounts for Watchers when items are updated, added, modified, etc.  Everything must remain internal and on the network.

Is there a way to configure JIRA to send messages via Pidgin to individual users and/or groups?

or...

Can we somehow setup an internal email account and turn email notifications back on?

I'm  not sure if anyone else has run into this problem, so I figured I'd ask the experts.

Thanks in advance!