Claims that four Co Cavan building workers were found safe after being feared dead in the World Trade Centre disaster are now shrouded in mystery, following the failure of Irish groups to make contact with them.
Last week, the four were reported to have been found in a Manhattan hospital, registered under false names because they were undocumented.
The Irish Voice newspaper's report was carried around the world. But efforts by authorities in New York and Dublin to establish the identities and condition of the men have failed. Irish interest groups in New York have also drawn a blank.
Sinn FΘin TD Mr Caoimhgh∅n ╙ Caolβin, who told the Irish Voice the story after being contacted by the men's families when they were listed as missing, yesterday issued a statement "reiterating and reaffirming" the reports.
He said the families insisted on anonymity because the men feared attention from the Immigration and Naturalisation Service.
News agencies trying to contact the men have gone down all the usual routes without success.
Mr Ray O'Hanlon, senior editor with the Irish Echo in New York, reported this week that staff at St Vincent's Hospital, where the men were supposed to be patients, had no knowledge of them. "We are pressing all the buttons but nothing's come up so far. It's bizarre - something like that, you don't keep a secret." There is now speculation they only have a connection to Cavan through relatives.