The campaign to clear the name of former Army officer Donal de Roiste was extended to the United States yesterday.
Mr de Roiste, joined by his sister Ms Adi Roche, actor Gabriel Byrne, author Don Mullan and former Comdt Paddy Walsh, held a press conference in Manhattan to launch the American arm of the "Donal de Roiste Truth Project."
Mr de Roiste, a lieutenant, was "retired" in 1969 from the Army "in the interests of the service." The formal order came from then President Eamon de Valera.
He was never told why he had been dismissed and never allowed to answer any charges or face any accusers. Successive governments have also declined to reveal the reason for dismissal and efforts to release the Army's file have failed before the courts.
The US campaign will be based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where Mr de Roiste's former wife Leah and his grown children, Sinead and Dara, now live.
A report on his case compiled by the Army was now on the desk of the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, he said.
He had not been interviewed during the compilation of the report, he claimed.
Mr de Roiste is today expected to meet Mr William Geary, the now 103-year-old New York resident and former member of the Garda who had his good name restored by the government in 1999 after spending a lifetime denying a charge of accepting a bribe from the IRA in 1928.