Digital Desk Staff
Nearly 300 mourners gathered at St Mary's Cemetery in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim after a funeral on Thursday.
Members of the Travelling community in Carrick-on-Shannon and Longford town were joined by relatives living in Britain for the funeral of Davey Reilly, according to The Irish Times.
There was a large Garda presence in the town for the past two days.
Dozens of UK-registered vehicles were seen in the town over the course of Wednesday and Thursday.
Gardaí set up checkpoints on the N4 approach into the town along with others in the Attirory townland.
Residents of the estate erected a large marquee, which was full of people on Wednesday evening.
A large number of mourners who were turned away from the funeral gathered in a near buy car park and ran through a Garda checkpoint to make their way to the marquee.
The funeral Mass was celebrated on Thursday with reduced numbers attending St Mary's church.
However, up to 300 people were president as the funeral cortege made its way to the cemetery, with no face masks visible among the mourners.
Pavee Point said it was 'shocked' and 'angered' after images of the funeral began circulating.
Martin Collins from Pavee Point told Newstalk that the gathering is not acceptable in the middle of a global pandemic.
Mr Collins said: “People need to be a lot more responsible and observe the public health guidelines. The guidelines are there for a reason and that is to protect life, again my message and the message of Pavee Point has been very consistent and clear to Travellers, 'please avoid large gatherings'.”
It was not just members of the Travelling community who were ignoring guidelines, Mr Collins added, pointing out that there had been incidents with students partying and ‘Golfgate.’
Regardless of ethnic origin it was not acceptable to ignore public health guidelines, he said.
The HSE’s director general, Paul Reid, has warned that there is a high level of transmission of Covid-19 at funerals which can lead to a high impact on communities.
Funerals were a difficult time for people who were grieving, he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
Ultimately what hurt people was that they had made sacrifices and then to see events like the large funeral in Carrick-on-Shannon on Thursday and other events “that’s what rocks people.”
