THREE Ballymena people were charged with public order offences following weekend protests outside a Catholic church in the Co Antrim town.
Two 17-year-olds, a male and a female, were charged with disorderly behaviour at a special sitting of Ballymena Magistrates Court yesterday and were released on bail. A 36-year-old man charged with disorderly behaviour and assaulting a police officer was detained in custody.
All three will appear in court again next Thursday.
Some 100 protesters heckled Mass-goers outside Our Lady's Catholic Church in the working-class Harryville district of Ballymena on Saturday night. This was half the number who turned out last week.
Local councillors said recent arrests had removed the ring-leaders" of the picketers on the 14th successive week of the protests.
The RUC said the evening passed off "relatively peacefully" compared with recent weeks when worshippers were assaulted and petrol bombs were thrown at police officers.
But the protesters were in angry mood as they vowed to continue demonstrating until Orangemen are allowed to parade in Dunloy.
"It wasn't that innocent. Obviously it still needed a high number of police protection .. . It's not diminishing all that rapidly", said Ballymena SDLP councillor Mr Declan O'Loan, who attends Mass regularly at the Harryville church.
More than 40 RUC Land, Rovers lined both sides of the main road outside the church from 4 p.m. on Saturday. The road remained open to traffic and Mass-goers in cars entered the church through the front gates without difficulty.
Several unionist councillors, including Ballymena's Ulster Unionist Party mayor, Mr James Currie, and an Alliance Party councillor, Mr David Ford, gathered in the church car park before the Mass to support the congregation.
Local Presbyterian and Church of Ireland clergy also attended and posed for photographs at the church steps with Father Frank Mullan, one of the two Vincentian curates who minister in Harryville. No DUP politicians were to be seen. Shortly before the 6 p.m. Mass, about 70 peace campaigners carrying candles filed silently into the church grounds under police escort. The vigil was aimed at "showing that the tactics of intimidation are not acceptable in a civilised society", said Ms Judith Byrne, a spokeswoman for the organisers, Women Together for Peace.
Ms Byrne, from Ballymena, said the peace campaigners were from Belfast, Dunloy, Moira and Ballymena. She "hadn't a clue" what religion they were.
Two women taking part in the candlelit procession said some protesters shouted "Fenian bastards" at them as they approached the church.
As the peace campaigners sang, hymns such as Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Bind Us Together Lord, the protesters stood largely silent behind a line of police on the footpath opposite the church.
The protesters accused the RUC of preventing them from going into shops along the road outside the church. "They (the RUC) are going to be driven out of their own homes soon" said one man.
"It's just like this: if Orangemen can't get walking in Dunloy, Catholics won't get to Mass in Harryville," said another. The crowd applauded him.
Inside the church, Father Eamon Cowan told the congregation of about 500 that a Protestant man had called to the parochial house last Thursday to say he disagreed with the protesters.
As he was wearing a blue and white Glasgow Rangers scarf, Father Cowan started talking to him about football. He told him he had been to see Rangers play several matches at Ibrox Park in Glasgow. When the man expressed surprise that he had gone to a Rangers match, the priest replied that it was because he "liked football".
"What's football got to do with it?" said the man.