Funeral - We are NOT all in it together

Dear Editor,
I write to express my annoyance, frustration and even anger at the scenes of a Traveller Community funeral in Carrick-on- Shannon on Thursday 11th March. Between Shannonside Radio and Leitrim Observer reports, as well as photos and video footage of the marquee, and portaloos, erected at the halting site in Carrick-on-Shannon for the same event, there was scant regard by those in attendance for the Covid guidelines and little respect for the health of others.
I personally counted 72 cars at the graveyard in Carrick, approx. half of which were Northern Ireland or UK registered. This was in addition to three garda vehicles parked outside the graveyard. Judging by the huge crowd there, clearly visible from the road, many of those cars had more than one occupant.

There was no social distancing and hardly a mask in sight as they left the graveyard in hordes. I expect some people will call this comment ‘discriminatory’, but let’s call a spade a spade. The facts and the evidence were there for all to see.
The most galling part of it all is that I, along with so many others, have been unable to attend removals and funerals, due to the restrictions and guidelines in place for over a year now, which most people have respected and observed. More importantly, thousands of bereaved people up and down the country have been unable to experience the support of their extended families, friends, neighbours, work colleagues etc. in their time of deepest grief. They have been deprived of handshakes, hugs and stories told about their loved ones; but those of the Traveller Community, in huge numbers, who flout the law, believe that they have some right to do what they wish. The rules don’t apply to them.

The scenes witnessed on Thursday were not a ‘once off’, either in Carrick-on-Shannon, or around the rest of the country and have been widely reported on in local media and on social media. Is there nobody within the Traveller Community who can show some authority and leadership on this issue?
It would be very interesting to get the Gárdaí’s take on this. How were so many cars let through checkpoints, when so many clearly travelled from the UK & Northern Ireland? How many were turned back? How many co-operated with the Gardaí?
How were so many people allowed to congregate, clearly in breach of all guidelines? How many ‘on the spot’ fines were handed down?
In the past while we have read / seen endless stories in the media about the heavy hand of the law, in the form of 20 Gardai (reported to have be present), being brought to bear on a woman who was arrested when she tried to open her beauty salon in Balbriggan, County Dublin, for the survival of her family; a former Carrick priest made media headlines all over the world when he was visited by Gardaí and told that he could be jailed for allowing a handful of parishioners to attend mass; another priest who was stopped by Gardaí from giving ‘drive by’ communion to parishioners after mass; ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ comes to mind!

Yet literally hundreds poured out of a Mosque in Dublin following their prayer worship, streamed on social media ….where the Gardai were called to attend, several times, but never arrived.
Is there something that the Gardaí are not telling us about the powers that they have/do not have? If there is, they need to either ‘come clean’ with the public about their powerlessness or tackle the Government on same. People are becoming increasingly frustrated by the apparent lack of even-handedness in law enforcement, and are wondering why they should bother with compliance at all, seeing as how we are NOT all in this together?
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