A family pursuing Ireland's last World War II compensation claim against Germany has accused successive Irish governments of mishandling its case over the last 60 years.
In a statement following another rebuff from the German authorities, members of the Nolan family said they would not allow their claim to be consigned to a permanent limbo.
The schooner Loch Ryan, carrying a cargo of china clay from Britain to Ireland, was bombed and machine-gunned by three Luftwaffe planes off Cornwall, southwest England, on August 16th, 1940.
It was flying the Irish flag indicating the ship was from a neutral country.
The 240-ton vessel was dubbed "the ship the Nazis could not sink" as it managed to stay afloat despite the 40 minute attack. The warplanes strafed it with machine gun fire 12 times and dropped bombs, two of which hit it.
The damage resulted in owner and skipper Captain James Nolan losing his ship. He had to go back to work as a seaman at the age of 60 to support his wife and seven children. Payment of compensation to Mr Nolan's surviving children has been raised with German diplomats on three occasions in the past six years by Ireland's diplomats.
The Nolan family alleges then taoiseach Mr Eamon de Valera suppressed the truth about what happened and misled the Dáil when it was debated in February 1941.
They say Mr de Valera repeated the German version of events - that the attack happened in a war-time blockade zone around Britain - when he knew this was incorrect. The blockade was not declared until the day after the attack.
"We insist that our case is a just one and we demand an apology from the Irish government who should now resolve the matter at a political level," the Nolans said in a statement.
The Minister for Foreign Mr Cowen told the family there was no evidence "of a disposition to change in the German position.
"Further pursuit of the claim does not hold out the prospect of achieving a positive result. It is very much regretted that it has not been possible to achieve a satisfactory outcome."
The Nolans do not accept that a settlement cannot be agreed.
"The Loch Ryanaffair and the pursuit of our rightful claim has been a 60-year struggle for our family and once again we feel betrayed," their statement said.
AFP