A parish priest has played down the paint bombing of his church in Ballymena as ''very minor'' and said the Catholics of the area were ''annoyed but not frightened'' by it. According to media reports tensions were high in the County Antrim area, where five Catholic churches were attacked in a co-ordinated sectarian strike last week.
No comparison
However, Fr Malachy Murphy, parish priest of St Mary's Church in Ballymena said the vandalism paled in comparison to the arson attacks on churches throughout the Troubles.
''When your church is burned to the ground and you have to rebuild with very little sympathy or help from local politicians then something like this seems minor.''
He said parishioners had witnessed ''horrific things'' in the past and were merely ''annoyed'' by the paint attack.
Five churches in Cullybackey, Ballymena, Ahoghill and Portglenone along with several graves were sprayed with paint, while a car was burned out in the grounds of St Mary's GAA club in Ahoghill.
Worst violence
In Belfast an arson attack on a Catholic school, St Patrick's College, was one of several incidents over the weekend, marking the worst violence seen during the North's marching season in six years.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic before the march of the Ballymena's Orange Order, whose hall also attacked last week, Fr Murphy said he doubted there would be an escalation of violence.
''I think if things get too quiet, a certain small element of the community wants to bring back the old days of hatred. They've been trying to whip up tension which hasn't existed for some time.''
He added: ''The more publicity they get, the more they do; the best possible thing we could do is ignore them.''
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