The Mayo Travellers Support Group has called for talks with the Vintners Federation of Ireland to try to resolve the dispute regarding Traveller access to pubs in Westport.
Members of the Westport branch of the VFI called for a blanket ban on serving Travellers in pubs in the town following a series of incidents involving Travellers last month.
The support group, however, said it was astonished at the call and that it was evidence of the unreasonable approach to the issue being adopted by the VFI.
Ms Bernadette Comiskey, spokeswoman for the group, called for talks between Travellers and VFI members to try to resolve the issue.
"There's no other way to do it but to sit down and talk," she said.
Ms Comiskey said the call for the ban illustrated the depth of prejudice which needed to be addressed.
The ban would only serve to punish the vast majority of Travellers who were well behaved, alienate them further and generate a lot of discrimination cases against pubs, she said.
In a statement, the group said VFI members were trying to portray themselves as the victims of an orchestrated campaign. Unfortunately, those who experienced discrimination were not that well resourced or organised, the group said.
It was the publicans who were systematically orchestrating a campaign against equality - they were the ones lobbying politicians, taking out large ads in newspapers to try to reinstate their absolute power to discriminate, it added.
"The equality legislation offers some limited redress to people who believe they have been treated in a discriminatory fashion," said Mr Gearóid Ó Riain, from the group.