IT is the residents of the New Lodge who will have to pick up the pieces of Thursday night's mayhem.
They have been subjected to weeks of anti-social behaviour at the site of a bonfire in the area.
As someone who has worked for many years in the courts, the names and faces of some of those at the centre of the criminality are instantly recognisable.
They will also be recognisable to those who have been a victim of their past behaviour.
Young men with court-ordered tags on their ankles and those with well-established criminal careers and lengthy criminal records are among the crowd.
Those with little to lose from involving themselves in the New Lodge stand-off, exploiting young people with everything to lose.
And while those with links to dissident republican groups seized the opportunity to exploit the situation in north Belfast, the irony is that those responsible for the anti-social violence are the very youths armed groups claim to be protecting the community from the rest of the year.
The New Lodge is already an area that has suffered so much but is full of spirit and resilience.
By way of contrast to the scenes of thuggery broadcast both on news reports and the more graphic social media posts, just streets away from the bonfire on Thursday a family fun day was taking place.
In west Belfast 10,000 young people danced the night away to world-famous DJs, a successful diversionary event that has been taking place at Féile an Phobail for the last number of years.
Compare this to the violent horror fest taking place in the New Lodge at the same time.
No one person or group is responsible for preventing scenes like those in north Belfast - it is a policing problem, a social problem and a political problem.
A symptom of economic neglect, an area where blocks of flats are used as a dumping ground to the detriment of long standing residents.
But while this problem is complex it is not impossible.
This must be the last year this fire is allowed to blight the lives of those who live in the New Lodge and who suffer most when lawlessness breaks out on their doorsteps.
