They moved into the house 33 years ago this week as young newly-weds, full of hope and dreams. They hadn't much money but they furnished it bit by bit. They raised their two children there. Slowly, it became home.
Two nights ago, the O'Kanes and another Catholic family in the Ballykeel estate were petrol-bombed by loyalists. The furniture removal van pulled up at their home yesterday morning to take away what could be salvaged. "I never thought it would end like this," said Anna O'Kane as she packed her belongings. Ballykeel is staunchly loyalist. The kerbstones are painted red-white-and-blue. Sectarian graffiti scars the walls. Nearly every house boasts a flag-pole for the Union Jack.
Their religion meant that life in Ballykeel was never easy for the O'Kanes but at first the trouble was tolerable. A brick through their window on the Twelfth; bottles hurled by a mob after a Saturday night's drinking. Last Christmas, a man stood outside the house and screamed: "Get out, you Fenian bastards."
But two nights ago, it wasn't just bricks, bottles or verbal threats which were aimed at the family. "It was about 4 a.m. and the wife and I were in bed," said Kevin O'Kane. "We heard a thud and ran downstairs. We thought the house was being stoned again. "I opened the livingroom door and it was ablaze. I had to close the door immediately - the smoke was over-powering. I started to choke. I wasn't able to save anything."
The couple stood on the street, waiting for the fire brigade, while their home was consumed by flames. The petrol bomb, thrown through the living-room window, left a trail of destruction. Nearly everything downstairs has been ruined. The carpet has been burnt black. The windows are cracked and broken. The walls and radiators are covered in a layer of soot. The charred remains of the curtains and armchairs sit in the back garden. The once brilliant white ceiling is now coal-black.
A solitary frame hangs from one wall - the glass lies shattered on the ground, the picture has been burnt out. "That's where all my wee ornaments were," said Anna, pointing to the corner of the room. "The gifts that my grandchildren gave me have been destroyed. A photo of my father who died five months ago has been lost too. A clock that we got on our anniversary and the wedding presents I treasured all these years, they're all gone. Those things are irreplaceable."
The couple's son, Paul, who left home when he married, came back yesterday to help clear up. He says that sectarian tensions have increased in Ballymena since the ceasefires. The plenary session of multi-party talks was held at Stormont Castle in Belfast yesterday, but Paul didn't think that negotiations would succeed.
His father believed that sectarian attacks would continue. "The talks won't work. Whatever pleases one side will offend the other. The outlook for people like us is bleak."
Nearly every Catholic family who has moved into Ballykeel has been forced out - the O'Kanes' next-door neighbours left after being petrol-bombed two years ago.
"This estate is 98 per cent Protestant," said Kevin. "It will be 99 per cent Protestant when we go."
Anna said her neighbours are "great" and she blamed the attack on "outsiders". But it was noticeable that most of Ballykeel yesterday seemed to go about their daily business as normal, ignoring the O'Kanes' plight.
Kevin and Anna came from small villages outside Ballymena but decided to settle in the town where Kevin was working as a labourer. "I helped build this estate," he said. "I built this very house. It's hard to move out."
The couple are staying with Paul and his wife until they find somewhere else. Anna is glad to get out of Ballykeel but Kevin is reluctant to leave.
Walking through the house, surveying the damage, he said that it wasn't beyond repair - "we could clean it up rightly".
"Daddy's stubborn," said Paul, shaking his head.