A €140,000 monument to honour the Irish who lost their lives in Vietnam has been branded as a copycat project.
The Irish Veterans Memorial Project (IVMP), who had planned their own tribute to the war dead, is accusing the American organisation behind the memorial of stealing their information, gathered over years through extensive research, for use on this seperate project.
The response of the American organisation is that the information is freely available in the public domain.
In a statement, the founder of IVMP Declan Hughes says that the Virginia-based "Irish Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project" is nothing to do with his own organisation, despite the similar name.
He also called into question the choice of Ennis, Co Clare, for the monument as the county is "one of the few counties in Ireland with little or no connection with the Vietnam dead".
The American organisation say the choice of location was due to locals being receptive to the idea when broached on it while the organisers were on holiday there.
"I and Irish Veterans are NOT supporting this maverick project" says Hughes "and urge others to think seriously before putting their hands in their pockets.
"This new group, not content with having purloined all our information and research on the Vietnam dead, without any form of request or acknowledgement, is now operating a lookalike website –www.irishvietnamveteransmemorialproject.org - and is soliciting for donations [to build the memorial]".
Speaking to Newstalk, Brian McDonnell of Irish Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project claims the information on Irish who fought and died in Vietnam is freely available online and in books, and that they contacted Hughes "a few years ago" in regards to this project, but he was unreceptive.
Hughes says he does not recall being broached on topic.
McDonnell added that their intention is not to undermine the original organisation, and that his understanding is that the IVMP have a much larger memorial in mind.
Ennis Civic Trust last month approved the construction of the €110,000 memorial, set to cost an additional €30,000 for landscaping, by the Irish Viet Nam Veterans Memorial Project, although the funds are being raised by organisation itself.
