 De Valera formally protested the bombing to the German government, as well as making his famous "they are our people" speech.Some have contended that the raid served as a warning to Ireland to keep out of the war.This contention was given added credibility when Colonel Edward Flynn, second cousin of Ireland's Minister for Coordination of Defensive Measures, recalled that Lord Haw Haw had warned Ireland that Dublin's Amiens Street Railway Station, where a stream of refugees from Belfast was arriving, would be bombed.