Gardai are anticipating the arrival of hundreds more Travellers to the Curragh and fear an annual religious retreat is the main attraction, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The Light and Life Mission attracted around 100 caravans last year but the pastor who runs the born-again Christian event said it will not be going ahead. He claimed the Travellers who are arriving here from the UK are doing so because they feel safer here amid the coronavirus crisis.

Michael Quinn from Newbridge told the Irish Mail On Sunday: ‘There are just under 1,000 deaths in Ireland, in the UK you nearly have that number in one day. People think Ireland is safer and they want to be with family and friends.’

The event usually runs over the summer months from a circus tent in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare. The Light and Life church is very popular in France and Britain and is growing in Ireland. Mr Quinn told the Irish Mail On Sunday he was visited by ‘an officer from Newbridge’ on Thursday night and told gardaí he would be officially cancelling the event.

He said he had wanted to ‘wait a little’ to hear Government advice before formally cancelling the event because it doesn’t really get going until late June or July, but he has now decided to pull the plug.

‘I’ve been isolating for the last number of weeks with my wife’, Mr Quinn said. ‘The majority of Travellers are taking it [Covid-19] very seriously. I will be putting out something official. I’m encouraging people to take Government advice. But I can only advise, I am not responsible.’

Mr Quinn added that he ‘discourages’ Travellers from setting up illegal camps on the Curragh, which is the responsibility of the Defence Forces, and told how he usually rents land from farms for the annual event and makes sure it is properly reinstated afterwards. Checkpoints have been mounted and there is a heavy Garda presence in the area in an attempt to prevent more Travellers crossing the country and setting up camp during the pandemic lockdown.

Gardaí have also engaged the Traveller Mediation Service in a bid to get across the important messages on social distancing. A number of caravans coming from Tullamore, Co. Offaly, to the Curragh were turned back this week and gardaí are working hard to prevent a further 150 Travellers from Waterford travelling to Co. Kildare following an anonymous tip-off this week.

There are now three camps of Travellers on the Curragh, and gardaí believe they are drawn to the area for the religious event which takes place each summer. A source said: ‘The gardaí received an anonymous tip-off about 150 Travellers coming to Kildare from Waterford for this religious event and are working hard to prevent this from happening.

‘More caravans have arrived in recent days and the gardaí have turned back a number, too.’ The Irish Mail On Sunday revealed last week that 25 caravans arrived by ferry from Bedfordshire in England and set up camp on the Curragh, on April 9, two days after the new lockdown powers were signed into law. Two further camps of around 20 caravans have since been set up in close proximity.

Gardaí are continuing to actively monitor the situation and prevent more Travellers arriving following complaints of a ‘blatant disregard’ for social distancing. This week the Irish Mail On Sunday spotted the Garda helicopter hovering above the camps, and also saw a number of checkpoints in operation in an attempt to turn back caravans making their way to the Curragh plains.

Gardaí have also put in place town patrols to assist shopkeepers who are concerned about a lack of social distancing by Travellers. Gardaí are trying to engage with and promote social distancing within the community and also assisting shops who have complained about people shopping in large groups.

Yet still the caravans continue to arrive, coming in surreptitiously on back roads or during the night. A source told how the religious retreat is run each year and is a major draw for Travellers. ‘There is a lot of disquiet with the public in the area,’ the source said. ‘We are in lockdown and people are told they cannot travel outside 2km, but here we have caravans arriving from the UK, Waterford, Tullamore.

‘People are concerned and the gardaí are trying hard to stop this movement.’ Last week the Irish Mail On Sunday revealed how a convoy of 25 families and caravans arrived in Ireland by ferry in the midst of lockdown. Over the bank holiday weekend, two vans ‘drove straight through’ a Garda checkpoint without stopping and in through the camp entrance. Martin Collins of Traveller organisation Pavee Point told the Irish Mail On Sunday it is ‘inexcusable’ that the group arrived during lockdown. But he also questioned how they were allowed on a ferry in the middle of a health emergency. Gardaí are understood to be trying to give advice to the Travellers about social distancing, but those in the camp were ‘not engaging’.

A source said: ‘The gardaí’s hands are tied. They are monitoring the situation, but by moving them now the gardaí could cause them to breach lockdown.’ After they arrived on April 9, about 25 vehicles and their accompanying caravans travelled to Walsh’s Hill in the Curragh where they met a smaller group from Tullamore who had arrived the day beforehand.

The Irish Mail On Sunday saw children playing together and adults coming and going from the camp when they visited this week. There were also reports of children climbing over the fence of the railway tracks. Mr Collins added that the group has negotiated with the Government and gardaí that the Travellers are to stay put for the duration of the lockdown.