A SENIOR member of the Independent Orange Order has said he fully supports the continuing loyalist picketing of the Catholic church in Harryville, Ballymena.
Mr Roy Ferguson, deputy master of the Independent Orange Order in Mid-Ulster, also said yesterday that there was strong support in his lodge for the protests, which have been running for 14 weeks.
Mr Ferguson said members of the Independent Order had regularly joined the demonstrations as Catholic worshippers attended Mass on Saturday evenings. He deplored yesterday's comments by Pastor David McConaghie, secretary of the order, distancing the order from the protests.
Mr Ferguson called on the Independent Order to provide central support for the protest. While independent Orangemen had not so far worn collarettes during the demonstrations, he believed that in future they would be prepared to wear their Orange insignia.
Mr Ferguson said he condemned violence, but defended the right to protest.
He supported the demonstrations for two reasons: because it was a protest against the refusal of the Dunloy residents to allow Orangemen march to a Protestant church in the village, and because he was opposed to the Catholic Mass.
Most Protestant churches and orders and unionist politicians have condemned the protests. But Mr Ferguson argued that if other Protestants were true to their faith they would also support the picket, because that was what the tenets of Protestantism demanded.
"The Westminster Confession of Faith states clearly that the Mass is wrong. Now I as a Protestant believe that the Mass is wrong, and I believe in the right to protest against something that is wrong," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
Mr Ferguson blamed the RUC rather than the protesters for outbreaks of violence during picketing, including physical attacks on some Mass-goers.
"The violence came because the RUC refused to clear the road for a peaceful parade in Dunloy." But he insisted: "I condemn the violence."
Mr Ferguson added that he did not believe he was bringing the Independent Orange Order into disrepute by supporting a picket at which there had been violence.
Pastor McConaghie, secretary of the Independent Order, distanced it from Mr Ferguson's remarks.
He at first understood that Mr Ferguson had merely attended the picket as an observer, he said. Members of the order were embarrassed to be in any way linked to the protest.
Mr Ferguson's presence was not sanctioned by the order, Pastor McConaghie added.
Father Frank Mullan of the Church of Our Lady in Harryville said he had no comment to make about Mr Ferguson, other than to say that his remarks struck him as "atavistic".
He said he did not yet know whether there would be further protests this Saturday or at midnight Mass on Tuesday.
He found Mr Ferguson's attitude in marked contrast to the scores of letters and messages of support he had received from Protestants in Britain and Ireland who were upset at the continuing protests.
In an opinion survey published in the Ballymena Guardian, the vast majority of the people in Harryville said they wanted the protest ended. Only one (1.5 per cent) of the 66 local people surveyed thought the protest was legitimate, according to the Guardian.
