Anger as Orange hall attacked in ‘sectarian hate crime' hours before village hosts Twelfth parade
Police are treating the incident as a sectarian hate crime.
The village is hosting the north Antrim Twelfth parade today.
In total, 43 lodges and 30 bands and Lambeg drums drawn from five local districts will be on parade.
Local MP Jim Allister said those parading would not be deterred by the attack.
He said there should have been a greater police presence in the village.
The PSNI received a report of criminal damage caused to the hall in the Main Street area of Rasharkin shortly after 1.20am this morning.
Paint had been thrown over the front of the building and graffiti daubed on walls opposite.
District Commander for Causeway Coast and Glens, Superintendent Sinead McIldowney said: 'We are treating this criminal damage as a sectarian-motivated hate crime.
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'The Police Service condemns all sectarian hate crime and criminal damage caused to any property is absolutely unacceptable.
'We will thoroughly investigate this matter and would appeal to anyone with information to contact us on 101, quoting reference 177 of 12/07/25.
'Our officers will continue to proactively patrol the area and engage with the local community around any concerns they may have.'
Mr Allister, the TUV MP for North Antrim, slammed those behind the attack.
'The overnight sectarian attack on Rasharkin Orange Hall and the painting of terrorist slogans in the village, before it today hosts Twelfth celebrations, typifies the unbridled hatred of Orange and unionist culture that is designed to drive out its remaining Protestant residents,' he said.
'The local unionist community will nonetheless not be deterred by this latest manifestation of sectarian hatred.
'The precedent of such attacks and therefore the predictability of such on the Eleventh Night ought to have led to a police presence in the village which clearly was absent.
'I look forward to seeing the parade later today in Rasharkin and stand with my constituents who have for so long borne such republican hatred.'
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