Another Twelfth has been and gone and as always it was a time of learning and lawlessness, celebration and controversy - all in equal measure.
Former Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay described the Eleventh night as like the film The Purge, where all laws are suspended for one night a year and people allowed to do whatever they want, with no thought for the consequences.
In reality, while it may not seem like it at the time, every action has a reaction and there will be consequences after the last embers have been extinguished on the last towering bonfire.
In some places the consequences may be little more than a few hangovers and a clean up, in others damage to property, the image of loyalism and community relations will once again have been damaged.
Belfast City Council this year took an unprecedented step in taking out an injunction against four bonfires and the High Court order had the support of many residents of the city.
The council action had the approval of all the party group leaders, including Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, whose party represents and provides political direction to the UVF.
It also had the backing of the DUP, who increased their vote and retained a Westminster seat in east Belfast with a respectable majority, in no small part due to the support of the loyalist electorate.
That they singled out east Belfast when there were similar towering and dangerous structures elsewhere is interesting.
Maybe it was a test of how the most hardcore element of loyalism would react to a court order before rolling the idea out across the city next year? If so then you can see a certain logic to their actions.
The peaceful way east Belfast loyalists reacted to the injunction is a far cry from the 2012 flag protests and for that they should get credit.
In approving the injunction the councillors have potentially found a way to end controversial bonfires permanently, however, how they enforce the court order and if they pursue any convictions in the coming weeks will be the real test of that.
Being concerned that there is a 100ft structure about to be set on fire beside your home or business is not an attack on loyalist culture but common sense.
Bonfires 20 years ago were nothing like the size they have now grown to, loyalists who build the enormous structures have discovered how to play pallet Jenga, and how big the pyres are depends on how many pallets they can get their hands on.
This insatiable appetite for pallets comes at financial cost to business - many of the pallets are stolen from haulage companies - but has also caused conflct within their own communities as the fires pose increasing risk to property.
Belfast is a growing city and waste ground no longer exists in the way that it would have in the early post conflict days. That regeneration means bonfires are closer to property each year and increasingly dangerous.
But as the fires burn out the very real issue of loyalist anger and dissatisfaction with the changing world they find themselves in also needs to be addressed.
Unionists who voted in favour of the injunction refused to explain their potentially very valid reasons for backing it, instead blaming the 'pan nationalist front', a phrase straight from the Jamie Bryson handbook.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP are never going to vote in favour of bonfires, their electorate are generally opposed to the fires whether they be in loyalist or nationalist areas, so why would they?
But if unionists made a decision based on public fears over bonfires then they should own that decision and not hide behind some fake cultural war, by doing so creating further division and sectarianism in the city.
The bonfire builders of east Belfast are citizens of this city and deserve a voice. Some of those interviewed by sections of the media were 21-years-old, too old to be playing with big fires in my opinion, but before that is taken from them something else needs be put in its place.
Young people need boundaries and direction, but also help and hope, all things sadly lacking in unionist politics that picks them up when needed and drops them like a hot stone when election time is over.
A full time job with hopes and ambition beyond building a fire bigger than the estate up the road would be a good start.
The current situation with bonfires is unsustainable, it can't go on, and now here is a new 12 month period to address the issue rather than leave it until the final hour when thousands of pallets are already assembled.
And maybe this time unionist councillors can be upfront and open about their intentions instead of blaming others for their actions.
