Steven Kane, 25, Dillion Kelly, 22, and Cian Jones, 23, all face a charge of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending or likely to stir up hatred.

It follows an investigation into footage streamed live on social media showing singing at an event in Dundonald, County Down, in Northern Ireland, in May 2022.

In the four-minute clip - which was filmed in an Orange Hall, a building for a protestant organisation called the Orange Order - several men are seen singing a song about Mrs McAreavey's death.

The footage was widely condemned across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland and beyond.

Mrs McAreavey, a 27-year-old teacher from County Tyrone, was strangled in her room at the Legends Hotel in Mauritius in January 2011. She had married her husband John only 10 days earlier.

Mrs McAreavey - the daughter of Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte - had returned to her room alone and disturbed a burglary.

No one has been convicted of her murder.

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Lawyers for Kane, of Coolshinney Heights in Magherafelt, and Kelly, of Edmund Court in Tobermore, indicated they were entering pleas of not guilty.

A barrister representing Jones, of Craigadick Road in Maghera, asked for some time to take further instructions and clarify an issue.

The case has been adjourned until 13 December to set a date for contest in the case of Kane and Kelly and for instructions in the case of Jones.

Seven individuals had originally been reported over the incident, but the other four case files went no further after it was concluded the evidence was not strong enough to support a reasonable prospect of a conviction.