If you right click on the directory containing the file and select SVN Properties, you should see an svn:ignore property with a list of ignored files. Simply edit that list and remove the rule ignoring your file.
Just edit the svn:ignore property (in the subversion tab of the directory properties).
(If you ignored a subfolder, select the property tab of it's parent folder)
If you want to remove one or more items from the ignore list, right click on those items and select TortoiseSVN → Remove from Ignore List You can also access a folder's svn:ignore property directly. That allows you to specify more general patterns using filename globbing, described in the section below. Read the section called “Project Settings” for more information on setting properties directly. Please be aware that each ignore pattern has to be placed on a separate line. Separating them by spaces does not work.
In my case there was another problem: the global ignore list in tortoise Settings, General.
Tortoise ships by default with .so files in the ignore list and we store these in source control (yes I know this is far from ideal). Removing them from the list sorted it out for me.