TONIGHT some Protestants will turn up at the Church of Our Lady in Harryville in solidarity with the beleaguered Catholic worshippers, who for the past weeks have endured abuse from protesters.
It is unlikely that their presence will stop the demonstrations. It is likely, however, that Catholics will again have to pass a vicious, sectarian gauntlet.
The Ulster Unionist mayor, Mr James Currie, is due among the sympathetic Protestants. The local MP, the Rev Ian Paisley, is not expected, but said he opposes the protest. Mr David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) has changed his mind: he won't be there either.
"Kristallnacht," said Father Frank Mullan, "That's what it brings to mind."
Kristallnacht was the night in November 1938 when the Nazis turned on the Jews, using the murder of a German diplomat in Paris as a pretext for slaughter, and the destruction of Jewish businesses and synagogues. It was also the trigger for the Holocaust.
"See that church over there?" said the shorn-haired young man.
"I would burn that f... ing place. It shouldn't be standing in a Protestant area in the first place."
We were standing across the road in Protestant Harryville from the Catholic church, in the bitter frost. His friend with the woollen cap said the two of them would be at the protest again tonight.
Kristallnacht had Paris. Harryville has Dunloy. "If Orangemen can be stopped going to their church in Dunloy, we're perfectly justified stopping Catholics going 10 church here," he said.
"Yes," agreed the shorn-haired 20-year-old. He thought the Dunloy nationalists opposed to the Orangemen were "f ... ing scum."
As for Catholics: "It's not that I hate Roman Catholics, just some of them. Some of them are all right."
A few minutes later two more young men, one wearing the regulation Rangers shirt, came along. They, too, would be protesting tonight.
Surely, though, it was wrong to throw petrol bombs and drag terrified Catholic Mass-goers from their cars?
"They should go to church somewhere else. It's only common sense," said the Rangers fan.
On Thursday two Catholic homes and a Catholic school were subjected to arson attacks in Ballymena. Yesterday there were arson attacks on two more Catholic schools in the Ballymena area.
A mother, her daughter and a male friend were also attacked and assaulted in their house in Ballymena yesterday.
The local SDLP representative Mr Sean Farren, warned that if Harryville was not resolved it could push Northern Ireland "close to the edge of a very dangerous situation
The young protesters would not seem to be representative of the majority Protestant view in Ballymena. A passer-by had one comment to make.
"The people who are protesting have never seen the inside of a church in their lives. That's all I am saying" - a point happily confirmed by the four protesters.
Ballymena is in the heart of the North's Bible belt, which explained why one man, when asked about the demonstration, gave a brief complicated lecture on his personal beliefs which revolved around two different tribes of Israel ending up in Ireland.
As for tonight? "If I was a Roman Catholic I'd lie at home," he advised.
An elderly Protestant gentleman from Harryville said he abhorred and was disgusted by the protests. He had an apocalyptic vision.
"This is such a beautiful country, but there are pockets of evil about. This sort of thing confirms me in my belief that the end of the world is near, with all these uprisings, and Satanic forces, and brother against brother..."
But would he stand in solidarity with Catholics outside the Church of Our Lady tonight?
"If my church tells me to I certainly will."
A middle-aged man who has Catholic friends living in Harryville said he opposed the demonstrations, but he couldn't afford to join the unionist mayor tonight. "There are paramilitaries involved here. If I came and stood outside the church I would be singled out," he said.
And there's the rub. It's obvious that while people may deplore what is happening at Harryville, they are too scared to support local Catholics, said Father Mullan.
He has received several letters of support from Protestants, and is gratified that the unionist mayor and other Protestants are prepared to show solidarity tonight.
Equally he believes that some unionist politicians have been "duplicitous and hypocritical" in their approach to the issue.
It was thought that Mr Ervine's originally intended presence was significant. His Progressive Unionist Party's links with the UVF was viewed as indicating that the paramilitaries might clamp down on the protests.
But his view that his presence might hinder rather than help the situation was a disappointment. His view that dialogue was the answer also caused puzzlement.
"Dialogue with whom?" asked Father Mullan. "That's the trouble, we don't know who is leading these people . . . These are faceless men of violence.
"And I think how Margaret Thatcher described Northern Ireland as as British as Finchley. Well, if this happened once in Finchley, or if it happened once outside a synagogue or mosque, there would be such an outcry that it would not happen again. It just wouldn't. But this isn't Finchley.
"To stop this we need an expression of concerted community, civil and political opposition to these protests, backed up by police action," said Father Mullan.
At the time of writing that concerted opposition was not evident.
