MR Michael Ancram, the North's Education Minister, has described as "sickening sectarianism" the continuing siege by loyalist pickets of Massgoers in Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim.
Mr Ancram, who was visiting three Catholic schools in Ballymena damaged by arson attacks following the Drumcree stand off last year, asserted that the protesters at Harryville were "contributing to a virus" which was in danger of infecting the whole of Northern Ireland.
He said the sectarian activity was carried out by "a very small and very vicious minority".
