RASHARKIN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - The funeral got under way on Tuesday of three young boys murdered in a sectarian arson attack that stunned Northern Ireland. The deaths in a suspected petrol bomb attack by pro-British "loyalist" extremists put enormous pressure on the Protestant Orange Order to call off their supporters` often violent protests against a ban on one of their most important annual parades. Despite calls from political and religious leaders in Northern Ireland and England, Orangemen at Portadown refused to give up their protest and vowed to remain there until they were allowed to march along the town`s Catholic Garvaghy Road. But there were signs, despite some overnight clashes between Protestant militants and police at Portadown, that the protest was scaling down in the sombre national mood prompted by the

deaths of Richard Quinn, 11, and his brothers, Mark, 10, and Jason, eight. At the home of the boys` grandmother, Irene Quinn, in Rasharkin, 40 miles (65 km) north-west of Belfast, three small white coffins were carried out by weeping pallbearers to begin their sad journey to the church in the nearby town of Ballymoney, where the boys had lived. Under grey skies, their mother, Chrissie, supported by her own mother and the boys` surviving brother, Lee, aged 12, walked behind the cortege. The first stage of the funeral cortege was on foot, with about 200 villagers and relatives accompanied by about 20 uniformed firemen walking behind. The coffins were then placed in a hearse to be taken to Ballymoney, where a multi-denominational funeral service was to be held at the Church of Our Lady and Saint Patrick. The boys would, however, be buried at Saint Mary`s cemetery in Rasharkin because, according to their grandmother, their mother does not wish to return to Ballymoney. Police were still questioning two men arrested on Monday in connection with the murders.