The ending of the long-running loyalist protests at the Catholic church in Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim, has been generally welcomed. The cost of policing the weekly demonstrations, which on several occasions degenerated into loyalist rioting and sectarian violence, is estimated at about £2 million.
The protesters called off demonstrations after a recent Apprentice Boys parade was allowed to take place in Dunloy, Co Antrim. Loyalists justified their weekly protests outside Saturday night Mass at the Church of Our Lady on the basis that it was linked to nationalists refusing to allow loyal order parades in Dunloy.
Mr Pat Armstrong, chairman of the Police Authority for Northern Ireland, estimated the cost of policing the protests since September 1996 at about £2 million. He welcomed the decision and hoped that community relations within Ballymena could be rebuilt.
Chief Inspector Brendan McGuigan of the RUC, who was involved in leading the policing operation since the protests began, said that while they continued, community relations deteriorated in Ballymena. "I would hope that now that the protest has ended it will give an opportunity for those wounds to heal and for the communities to come back together.
"I must say that throughout the protest there were always people from both sides of the community who maintained contact with each other and were able to strike some sort of equilibrium in the whole situation," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
"We hope that Ballymena can go on from this particular experience and grow with a level of community harmony and support that we feel the town deserves.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, also welcomed the "so-called resolution" of the problem but contended that the demonstrations would never have happened but for nationalist opposition to loyal order marches in nearby Dunloy.
He accused some nationalists in Dunloy of taking the law into their own hands, of vandalising the Orange hall in the village and of daubing it with "disgraceful and filthy language".
"There would have been no Harryville if the people [the loyal orders] had been allowed to walk to their place of worship in Dunloy," Dr Paisley said.
The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition expressed concern that the ending of the protest appeared to be conditional on no further nationalist demonstrations against loyal order parades in Dunloy. "This protest was never an appropriate or justifiable action," Ms Anne Carr of the coalition said.
She recalled that when members of the coalition stood outside the church last year in solidarity with the Massgoers, Ms Monica McWilliams, the chief spokeswoman for the coalition, was struck by a stone. "We've always said it is just as important to take the stones out of people's heads as to take them out of their hands," Ms Carr said.
Mr Tom French, the Workers' Party Northern Ireland president, also welcomed the end of the "sectarian picket".
"I hope this is a sign of things to come in Northern Ireland following the Yes vote in the referendum," he said.
