Annoyed is an understatement. I am north Belfast born and bred so seeing what’s been unfolding on the streets over the last couple of days is particularly horrifying.
Thoughts are of course foremost with the victim of Monday night’s brutal knife attack. We wish him and his family well after such a dreadful and traumatic incident.
A 30-year-old is before the courts today and the justice system must be left to take its course.
The subsequent violence in the city and beyond cannot be justified. At time of writing the emergency services were dealing with properties and vehicles on fire.
I saw businesses shut early and workers head for home early in anticipation from those who knew the pleas of police and politicians would later go unheeded.
The peaceful demonstrations were but a distant memory as burning barricades, bins and more sent plumes of thick dark smoke into the air and police advised the media to be careful.
As we drove my car I was faced by road blocks near where I lived. Police sirens were all around, and a helicopter hovered over me. Instructions from police to people outside could be heard nearby.
Rain sadly didn’t call off play for those intent on destruction.
But when the ashes are swept up and the roads are cleared, counting the cost of the damage will be much more than the physical items that need to be replaced.
Right-thinking people are horrified by more than one thing that is happening. They are appalled by Monday’s knife attack and also appalled by the negative, damaging and dangerous scenes that have flowed from it.
Racists, online and in person, including politicians, have been showing us all what their real agenda is.
Far-right online figures, racist elements in England and the US have used Monday’s events to justify spreading their poison.
People who know nothing of Belfast and probably have never been here are using what has happened to their own advantage.
Whether that is politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths or online scumbags cynically capitalising on events to try to make a point.
The “protect our women and girls” crowd have thought nothing of being all sorts of abusive to journalists like me.
It is so depressing to see burning barricades and to know that non-white people are in fear for their lives because casually racist characters online and in the real world are frothing at the mouth to spread their hate.
Disorder like this is not unique to Northern Ireland.
Our emergency services may be more used to dealing with it but just like when we see violence in Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh and London it is not representative of all the people of each city or the wider society as a whole.
You also have to take into consideration that the violence we have seen is – for some – a recreational summer pastime, as obscene as that sounds.
We Irish have made our homes all over the world for hundreds of years because of famine, conflict, economic opportunity, love and even just better weather.
There is a reason there is an Irish pub in every country in the world.
There is a reason so many people globally claim Irish heritage.
You simply don’t get to be racist and Irish, though some of our citizens are giving it a good go.
I have had countless discussions in recent days with people about violence, poverty, housing, policing, racism, sectarianism and more.
And those conversations will continue.
As I type and the rain is getting heavier, I travel in hope over experience that the violence will stop.
