UNTIL now the ongoing feud between gangsters from Dublin and Drogheda has seemed far removed from life north of the border.
Ardoyne was a place well used to conflict-related violence in the past.
But the killing of Robbie Lawlor, one of Ireland's most notorious and feared gangsters, in the front garden of a house in broad daylight has shocked the people of the area to their core.
That a man who was the chief suspect in one of the most barbaric killings in the country's history was frequenting north Belfast will put fear into an already anxious community.
Keane Mulready Woods was just 17 years old when he was abducted in January by Lawlor's gang, tortured, dismembered and his body parts spread across Dublin's Northside.
His torso has never been recovered.
The drug gangs have descended into Narcos-style barbarity. The footsoldiers used to transport drugs and attack rival gang members are little more than children.
The Belfast criminals who have hooked up with the gangs to peddle drugs, mainly in this case heroin and cocaine, as of Saturday are now very much a part of the bloody feud.
The murder of Robbie Lawlor will be avenged by those loyal to him.
He is the fourth person to be murdered in the feud, but unlikely to be the last.
Those involved are now all considered legitimate targets, and any innocent person who just so happens to be in the line of fire will be collateral damage in the minds of the next generation of gangland criminals.
Criminals who have shown scant regard for basic humanity and who have now just transported both drugs and a savage feud to the streets of Belfast.
In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, people were already anxious and afraid.
This incident will just add to that, and it is a justifiable fear, for this is a war without rules or limits and it is a war that is far from over.
