THE Rev Ian Paisley has blamed loyalist paramilitaries for orchestrating the violent protest outside the Catholic church in Harryville, Ballymena, in Co Antrim, on Saturday night.
The Democratic Unionist Party leader condemned the rioting and said the protests could be ended if Orangemen were allowed parade in Dunloy with the "quiescence" of the local community.
Three Mass goers and a number of police officers were injured during the disturbances. One woman who was attacked said she saw the face of "hate" in Harryville on Saturday night.
The Catholic parochial house at Harryville was broken into and vandalised in the wake of the protest. A video and a small sum of money were taken, according to police. A local SDLP representative, Mr Sean Farren, appealed for dialogue to resolve the issue.
Chief Insp Robert McCallum of the RUC in Ballymena, in response to Dr Paisley's claims, said "a number of groups was involved". He added: "While I don't think the main paramilitaries themselves are involved there are always people on the fringes of such organisations that wish to confront the police whenever they can."
Chief Insp McCallum said there should be forthright community condemnation of the protests and rioting, and support for the "beleaguered" Catholics who attend Mass at Harryville.
Dr Paisley, who is MP for North Antrim, which takes in Ballymena, said everybody should have the right to worship freely.
"In the ethos of Protestantism there is no place for those that attack anybody going to their desired place of worship," he added.
"You may not agree with what takes place in that place of worship, you may not agree with the doctrines that are preached there, but they have the same right as any other body of people, according to the law, to worship according to the dictates of their conscience," said Dr Paisley.
He added that it had to be accepted that the protest was linked to the nationalist protests in Dunloy in which Orangemen were prevented from marching to their place of worship.
"What we have to concentrate on now is to have that Orange parade through Dunloy with the quiescence of the residents of Dunloy. When that's through then I think we will come to be able to approach this issue with the vigour it has to be approached with."
The Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, said he was "disgusted" at the violence in Harryville. "Attacks on people because of their wish to attend a place of worship, attacks on churches or schools and the continuing boycott of businesses because of naked sectarianism are an utter disgrace to their community.
"To attack any Protestant or Roman Catholic because of their religion is a denial of any claim to follow the Christian way of life," Dr Eames added.
The Ulster Unionist Party mayor of Ballymena, Mr James Currie, in condemning Saturday night's protest, said all the people of Ballymena were suffering because of the Harryville pickets.
"The people who are organising the protests have established very, very firmly that they can hurt and intimidate people in Harryville going to Mass, and now they, should give up, and say, we are going away, and not coming back," said Mr Currie.
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Fein chairman, said unionist and loyalist leaders should use their influence to stop the Harryville protests "before someone is seriously injured".
"The attempt to compare peaceful worshippers going to Mass with an organised parade by the Orange Order in full regalia marching in military fashion through an exclusively nationalist village has absolutely no legitimacy," said Mr McLaughlin.
One Catholic woman who was attacked on Saturday night told, BBC Radio Ulster how she was forced from her car. "Three or four of them were attacking me, trying to get my car keys," she said.
"I just felt so sorry for them. I could see the hate in their eyes. They're only children, and I felt so sorry for the parents, who brought them up to hate me," she said.
The woman did not know how the protest could be resolved, but she planned to continue going to Mass at Harryville. "Nothing will stop me from going to Mass," she said.
The Workers Party and the Irish Republican Socialist Party also condemned the protest and violence in Harryville.
