Joseph "Keola" Donaghy was on his way to Cork to study for a PhD in ethnomusicology at UCC when officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) stopped his entry to the country as he got off his flight from Los Angeles at Dublin airport.

Donaghy, a US citizen, along with his wife Marie and daughter Denyce, have now put their move to Ireland on indefinite hold as they slowly try to turn diplomatic wheels to gain entry to the country.

The lecturer at the University of Hawaii and voting member for the prestigious annual Grammy music awards immediately flew back to New York, and is now living in limbo with relatives in Philadelphia as he awaits a positive outcome to the ordeal.

Speaking to the Tribune, he said, "Staff at UCC have helped us out and I have sent a formal letter of appeal to a garda superintendent at the Garda National Immigration Bureau and I know that he received that at 10.30am on Friday morning but I have had no response to it yet."

The Donaghy's plight has been branded a "mess" by Labour Party TD Ruairi Quinn who added, "This PhD student was turned away when we are trying to encourage more students to study here.

"I am calling on the authorities to sort out this mess and allow Keola and his family to spend the year in Cork as they had planned to."

Donaghy had been planning his trip to Cork to complete his doctoral research programme for five years and he has spent the past nine months finalising arrangements with UCC for the trip.

"Very early in this process our contact there became aware that my wife and daughter travelling with me could be an issue. She made several calls to the garda immigration office and got several different answers, " he said.

"The GNIB stated 'if the student had sufficient funds and the child was registered in a private school there shouldn't be a difficulty'."

The Donaghys enrolled their daughter to do transition year in St Aloysius School near UCC where the principal informed them that they could reimburse the school with the capitation fee that they receive from the state, along with some other administrative fees.

Donaghy believes that the way his daughter was enrolled in a public school and not a private one may have raised suspicions at Dublin airport.

Immigration officials told the Donaghys that they believed they were entering the country "for purposes other than those expressed".

Joseph added, "To cover the financial side, we brought with us a bit over $4,000 in cash, a bank statement showing a balance of over $10,000 that we could wire to an Irish bank upon arrival, and a bank statement showing a credit line of over $55,000 available to us.

"We did this to be able to demonstrate that we had the financial resources to live in Ireland without being a burden to the state."

Donaghy told the Tribune that he will stay with relatives in Philadelphia until tomorrow or Tuesday and if they have not had a positive outcome to their ordeal by then they will move back to Hawaii.

"We went to Ireland in good faith. We were completely honest with the immigration officer, no matter what he thinks to the contrary."

When asked about the case this weekend a garda spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on any individual immigration cases."