Republican News · Thursday 14 March 2002

No Sunday show in Ballymena

Bowing to pressure from the Orange Order, the County Antrim Agricultural Association has decided against holding its show on a Sunday.

The County Antrim Braid LOL No 13 is at the centre of a row over its threat to "take every action necessary regardless of the consequences" to stop the show going ahead. The threat was last week sent to members of Ballymena Borough Council ahead of a meeting to decide whether to grant the show's organisers permission to hold the show on a Sunday, for the first time ever.

In the letter, Mr DJ Gray, the Braid District LOL No 13's Worshipful District Secretary, states that the "council can rest assured that the Orange Institution, in general, will not permit our basic Christian beliefs to be diminished and abused in any way".

It has been disclosed that a number of exhibitors have withdrawn from the show because of the threats. And it has also been revealed that Ballymena Council itself has agreed to defer a decision on the show, which is scheduled for 24 and 25 May - until an investigation into legal and financial matters was carried out.

In a statement, DUP leader Reverend Ian Paisley has expressed his support for the Braid Orange Lodge. "I congratulate all those who have taken their stand against this attempt to impose on the town something not in keeping with their practice and convictions," he said. "The exhibitors who have withdrawn and all who have made their protests show that there are still those in our society who can separate the precious from the vile." The DUP leader added that turning God's day of rest and worship into a day for, "worldly trade and gain can only bring a weeping of disaster".

Sinn Féin Councillor Philip McGuigan, from North Antrim, commenting on this latest furore said: "It is ironic that the desire of the Orange Order to keep sacred the Sabbath and the sanctity of their religious belief and practice didn't extend to the Catholic congregation of Harryville, who were targeted by loyalist protesters for an 18-month period through 1996 and 1997.

"Not once did these religious fundamentalists show any respect for the principle of freedom to worship during the worst of the Harryville protest, which was based on nothing more than religious intolerance."