A photograph of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern alongside two deported Nigerian women, taken during the 2002 general election campaign, is the centrepiece of a major anti-deportation campaign in the midlands.
Mr Ahern posed for the photograph with Elizabeth Odunsi and Iyabo Nwanze when he visited the Dean Kelly School in Athlone, Co Westmeath.
The picture is now being used as a poster by anti-deportation campaigners in Athlone who are demanding that the two women be returned from Lagos. Both their families have been split up due to the deportation on the March 14th flight out of Dublin Airport.
Each brought one of their children with them, but other children were left behind. Ms Nwanze's son Emmanuel (8), and Ms Odunsi's children: Mabajoye (17), Oluwaseun (14) and Olwasegun (11) are now in hiding in the midlands to avoid deportation. The two women had been rearing the children on their own.
Speaking from Lagos, Ms Nwanze asked: "What have we done to deserve this? Why is this happening to us?" She appealed to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to bring them back.
"A groundswell of opinion is growing that these two women should be brought back to be with their families here. It is just not right that they can be separated from their children in this way," said Frank Young, of the Athlone-based group fighting the campaign.
Mr Young also revealed that the group had formally established itself as Athlone Friends Together (AFT), having earlier been called Athlone Friends Against Racism.
A member of the group - Denis Rohan - is in Brussels today in his capacity as a trade union official, and he intends to raise the deportation issue with MEPs and other trade union leaders. "I want to raise awareness of what is happening in Ireland."