BEFORE Christmas, and the murder of Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier (38), at her remote holiday home outside Schull, in west Cork gardai had established that there were some 410 non-nationals living in the area.

Apart from ordinary tourists and holiday-home owners the remoteness and beauty of west Cork and parts of Kerry has also acted as a magnet for people who have chosen to live an alternative lifestyle in the hills and rugged countryside of the south-west.

By and large, these new age travellers and throw-backs to the hippie era have been law-abiding and have not caused any particular trouble as far as local gardai are concerned.

While a few German and French nationals have adopted this lifestyle, predominantly the expat community is made up of English and Welsh people.

In towns such as Bantry, on dole day, they can be seen collecting their social welfare payments, and on market days they often sell their hand-crafted wares.

When there have been brushes with the law, they have usually involved minor cannabis offences. One such instance occurred last summer when 30 cannabis plants, believed to be for private consumption, were found growing on Coole Mountain, near Dunmanway. The seizure led to the mountain being nicknamed "Hash Mountain".

However, according to senior gardai in west Cork, recent newspaper claims that the community of foreign nationals includes paedophiles, fraudsters and other serious criminals are "over the top and untrue".

While it is true that the murder of Ms du Plantier has led to a widespread Garda investigation in the area, involving information being passed between Interpol and local gardai, nothing serious has come to light.

"When you cast the net as wide as we have, you will always come up with something you did not know before. I've never been part of an investigation where this hasn't happened," Chief Supt Noel Smith, who is heading the murder investigation, told The Irish Times.

It is understood that the du Plantier murder hunt has led directly to new information on only a handful of non-nationals living in west Cork, and possibly no more than two people.

Although gardai have discounted suggestions that paedophilia was one of the crimes to come to light, they will not say exactly what crimes are involved.

"That's not a matter we can comment on at this stage, but you, can take it that due process will run its course," Chief Supt Smith added.

He went on: "Naturally, given that a French national was murdered, we used Interpol's help. This, together with hard detective work by our own gardai has led to some information we didn't have before concerning people living in the area who may have committed crimes outside the jurisdiction, but a lot of the newspaper reports have been greatly exaggerated."

So far, according to Chief Supt Smith, no files on the west Cork non-national community - have passed between local gardai and other police forces in Britain or Europe.

He also confirmed that there had been no requests for the extradition of particular individuals from the area to other jurisdictions and that no police force from another country had carried out investigations in west Cork.

It is also understood that in the murder investigation, no particular emphasis has been placed on new age travellers/hippies in west Cork, and certainly no more emphasis than on any other section of the community.

When non-nationals arrive in west Cork to stay, a specially-appointed Garda officer collects all the relevant information, such as passport number, country of origin, names etc, for the purposes of Garda files. Chief Supt Smith said this was a routine procedure.

This weekend, three members of the murder investigation team are in Paris interviewing Mr Daniel du Plantier (55), the husband of the murdered woman, concerning her last known movements before her departure for Ireland.

She arrived at Cork Airport on December 20th and travelled the same day in a hired car to her holiday home. She was seen in the locality at various times between then and December 22nd, and on the following day her battered remains were found in a laneway not far from her house. A blunt instrument had been used to beat her about the head, and it is believed that a brick had also been dropped on her body.