LOYALIST protests outside Catholic churches in Bushmills and Dervock, Co Antrim, have been suspended following mediation, but the DUP said yesterday pickets will continue to be placed at Mass time in Ballymena.
About 200 loyalist protesters picketed St Mary's Church at Harryville, Ballymena, on Saturday evening, but parishioners were able to attend Mass as a substantial police presence kept the picketers from the entrances.
The protests outside Bushmills and Dervock churches had been temporarily called off after assurances were given, following mediation, about access to Dunloy Orange Hall. A DUP councillor, Mr David McAllister, said the decision to suspend the demonstrations was made after an undertaking was forthcoming that the issues at Dunloy would be addressed.
"The Dunloy Accordion Band, we are led to believe, will be allowed back into the Orange Hall to practise. The graffiti around the hall will be removed, and the Tricolours which are seen to be offensive to those using the hall will also be removed", he said.
A North Antrim SDLP representative, former party chairman Mr Sean Farren, said it was hoped that progress could be made in regard to the Ballymena demonstrations also, if the leadership of those could be identified. He hoped there would be developments in the next week which would end the protests.
However, Mr Ian Paisley Jnr of the DUP said the Ballymena protests would continue. The people protesting at Harryville, although concerned about the local issues at Dunloy, had a major problem "with the overall systematic boycotts against their community, the overall blockages of their parades through the summer, and I think that that issue has got to be addressed more centrally before that protest will evaporate".
Mr Paisley said there was a feeling of intolerance towards the Protestant community. There were systematic boycotts of that community and there was the burning of their churches. There would have to be evidence that these matters were addressed, and evidence that this activity had stopped, before the church pickets would end.
Meanwhile, an Apprentice Boys' church parade in Newry, Co Down, passed off without incident yesterday. About 200 people paraded to the centre of the town after gathering at the local Orange Hall.
The parade was watched by the three members of the Independent Review of Parades and Marches - Dr Peter North, the Rev John Dunlop and Father Oliver Crilly.
At a meeting of several hundred Garvaghy Road residents in Portadown on Friday night, a decision was made to make substantial presentations to the review although, according to a statement, "a lot of scepticism was expressed" regarding the value of this body.
The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition has invited Prof North and his colleagues to come to the area and hear the residents.