Ten Irish nationals have been deported from the United States after immigration officers discovered by chance that they were working illegally in the country.
The eight women and two men, believed to be in their 20s and early 30s, came to the attention of officials from the Immigration and Naturalisation Services while travelling to Boston from Chicago, where they had attended the GAA national games last week.
INS officials boarded the train in Buffalo in pursuit of another group of migrants and discovered that the 10 did not possess work visas.
It emerged they arrived in the US under the visa waiver programme, which allows holiday makers to stay for 90 days provided they possess a valid ticket home and they had remained in the country illicitly.
Under US law, the INS was obliged to deport them when it became aware that they did not possess valid visas.
They were told they would be sent back to Ireland.
They were then allowed to return to Boston to collect their belonging and inform their employers.
They returned to Dublin aboard a scheduled flight from Boston yesterday morning.
They were said to be in good health.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was satisfied the 10 had been fairly and properly treated though it refused to comment further on the circumstances of their case.
Several of the those deported had been working in the US for several years. Others had arrived in Boston last summer.
They have been told they cannot return to the US for 10 years.