Ramoan Parish Church, Ballycastle, Co Antrim

Some Quotes from the Ramoan Parish Meeting Wednesday, August 26, 2009 The Church of Ireland has two churches in Ramoan Parish, Ballycastle, Co Antrim: St James, the parish church, is at the junction of Straid Road and Church Road and Holy Trinity is at the Diamond, in the centre of Ballycastle. “We can’t use St James for morning service any more: it’s too dangerous, the slates are in a bad state and the roof is so steep they could slip off.” Q. So why continue with the evening service then or is it not dangerous in the evening? “We can’t have the hall in the new graveyard, there’s not enough room for a hall, toilets, a crèche and 95 car parking spaces.” Q. Why not park on the roadside as usual? “There’s too much risk of vandalism at Ramoan.” [Holy Trinity was vandalised, not St James, Ramoan] “That boy has been caught.” “We can’t have the hall across the road from St James’. Crossing the road is unsafe.” “The road service won’t put in a pedestrian crossing, there’s not enough traffic.” “Legal fees so far amount to £42,000.” Enough to re-roof St James? Last Sunday’s sermon: “People standing up for what they believe is right.”

Ramoan Parish Meeting update. 3 September 2009 This week’s Ballycastle Chronicle reported that “a parishioner who attended the event said there were no objections raised about the church plans during the meeting.” This quotation is reputedly not an accurate account. Most of those attended the meeting for the main purpose of protesting against the plans to develop Holy Trinity and the consequential closure of Ramoan. One parishioner stated that he had already written a letter of protest at the plans. The meeting may well have been called because of heated altercations at the previous Sunday service. Will the proffered open ballot on the matter be forthcoming? Or is the expected outcome so clear that there’s no point ie no-one wants to change the parish church to Holy Trinity. It's claimed that there is ample space at Ramoan for all the modern facilities required by the parish. Glebe land is available both next to the church and just across the road. A small building containing crèche and toilets could easily be built close to the church, served by a connecting covered walkway. On the matter of the Quay Road Hall. It's apparently been claimed that the facilities recommended by Moyle Environmental Health department would have used up the profits from Lammas Fair teas and spending this on the hall would be a waste of money because of the possibility of a new hall elsewhere. This means that the improvements needed to bring the hall up to standard would cost less than £5,000, as profits from the teas are usually around the £4,000 mark. The Environmental Health department at Moyle Council and those familiar with the kitchen agree it’s dated, but not unfit for purpose. With around £10,000 to improve the lane providing disabled access to the hall door, £15,000 is a lot less than the £42,000 already spent on legal fees. That would have left £27,000 for a car park at Ramoan and the architect's bill would no doubt, have gone a long way towards providing toilets and a crèche. It is no surprise that there were vociferous protestations at spending “Ramoan” money on Holy Trinity.