Ballymena streets ‘spread with slurry overnight’ ahead of town’s first Pride parade – 1v1 Video Chat & LIve Streaming & Influencer Subscription

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Screengrab from a video showing the slurry on the street this morning.

Ballymena streets ‘spread with slurry overnight’ ahead of town’s first Pride parade

Slurry has been spread near streets where a pride parade was due to finish up this afternoon.

10.35am, 28 Jun 2025

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SLURRY HAS SEEMINGLY been spread on streets in Ballymena and shopfronts have allegedly been vandalised with spray paint ahead of a Pride parade that is due to take place in the Co Antrim town this afternoon.

Business owners this morning opened their shutters on Ballymoney Street and Greenvale Street, close to the Town Centre shopping centre, to find that slurry had been spread up and down the roads overnight.

Family-owned businesses and their staff are currently cleaning up the mess ahead of the town’s first ever Pride parade this afternoon, which was due to finish up on Greenvale Street.

“It’s awful,” one Greenvale shop owner told The Journal. “It’s all up the lampposts as well.”

Local SDLP councillor Denise Johnston wrote on X: “I am hearing that the town centre in Ballymena has been spread with slurry overnight ahead of the town’s first Pride rally. The local businesses are currently cleaning it up.”

“I am disgusted by those bigots who would commit such an act and hope they will have been caught on CCTV,” she added.

Nicole, a manager of the K&G McAtamney Butchery & Deli on Ballymoney Street, said that when workers arrived at the car park this morning there was slurry the whole way from there to the butchers.

“It’s all around the town from Ballymoney street to here, and it’s particularly bad on Greenvale Street,” she said. “The vendors here have been out all morning getting involved in cleaning it, including our workers.”

Shop owners have reported the incident to the police, it is understood. The Journal has asked the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for a comment on the matter.

Poster for the first Pride Parade in Ballymena, which will take place this afternoon.Mid & East Antrim Pride

Mid & East Antrim Pride

Nicole told The Journal: “We don’t understand what would compel somebody to do this and for it to coincide with our first pride event, which is a positive thing bringing people into the town, is just vile.”

“We’re halfway up the street cleaning it now, and it’s been all hands on deck, but it’s been deeply unpleasant for our staff, and of course our customers.”

Ballymena made headlines around the world after three nights of rioting earlier this month in which over 40 PSNI officers were injured.

PSNI said the rioting erupted after a vigil to protest the alleged sexual assault in the town was “hijacked” by “racist thuggery”.

Curtis Lee, the organiser of the Pride parade in Ballymena which will take place this afternoon, told The Journal: “The committee’s opinion was that, no matter what, we’re going ahead with this because to cancel would be to give into fear.”

There will be protests today from four evangelical Christian groups. One of the four groups protesting is United Christian Witness, and the other three are local church groups.

With reporting by Eimer McAuley & Diarmuid Pepper

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