The majority of the licensed premises in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, have remained closed for business at night since Saturday evening, when up to 40 Traveller caravans took over the car-park of the Dawn Meats plant.
The large private car-park on the Claremorris road in the town is now occupied by up to 200 Travellers, who drove in convoy to the location on Saturday.
As a consequence, local publicans decided to close their premises to customers for the past three nights.
The president of the Ballyhaunis Chamber of Commerce, Mr Donal Shanaghy, said yesterday that business people in the town were concerned that the influx of Travellers was affecting trade.
"The sudden influx of so many Travellers into the town is affecting local trade," he explained. "No one can afford to suddenly shut up shop," he added.
According to a spokesman for management at Dawn Meats, the occupation of the company's car-park was causing serious inconvenience for staff at the factory.
He said staff had had to park on both sides of the main road because the car-park was full of Traveller caravans, cars and vans.