The family of a murdered man who is alleged to have tipped off the FBI about the IRA appeared in a Boston court yesterday to open a $50 million lawsuit against the US government.
John McIntyre, a Massachusetts fisherman, was a crew member of the Valhalla gun-running ship which attempted to supply large quantities of weapons to a fishing vessel off the Co Kerry coast in 1984.
The fishing vessel was skippered by Sinn Féin TD Mr Martin Ferris, who was jailed for his part in the shipment but had no knowledge of subsequent events in the United States.
A member of an Irish-American gang which set up the shipment, Steve Flemmi, was sentenced to life imprisonment last month after hiding Mr McIntyre's body for 16 years.
He also pleaded guilty to nine other murders, most of which took place in Boston in the 1970s and 1980s. Flemmi said that McIntyre was killed after he passed on information about the IRA shipment to the FBI.
The US government has conceded that there was collusion at the time between some members of the FBI and the Winter Hill Gang, a notorious South Boston gang of which Flemmi was second-in-command.
However, the government is arguing that the lawsuit was not taken in time and that the family should be barred from proceeding with the case.
A former FBI agent, John Connolly jnr, is currently serving a 10-year sentence for assisting the leaders of the Winter Hill Gang.
Another former FBI agent, Paul Rico, was due to go on trial for assisting the gang in a murder but died in prison last month.
The McIntyre case is part of $1.4 billion in legal claims being taken against the US by victims of the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, James "Whitey" Bulger, who is currently on the run with 21 murder charges outstanding.
John McIntyre's mother, Emily, and his brother, Chris, are seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that their claim against the US government is one month out of date.
The family has strong political backing, including that of Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt, who described the decision as "outrageous".
Ms McIntyre said that the life sentence imposed on Mr Flemmi could never bring emotional closure and that she still thought about her son "every morning and every night".
"I say a prayer every night. It keeps me going, but I will never forgive these parasites for what they have done," she added.
John McIntyre disappeared in November 1984 after talking to the FBI about Bulger's and Flemmi's criminal activities. His remains, along with those of two other victims, were found in an unmarked grave in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in January 2000.