The sharp increase in political tensions and security concerns surrounding the Brexit debacle over recent days should not come as a surprise.
It was clear from the moment the UK voted narrowly to leave the EU in the ill-judged 2016 referendum, against the firmly expressed wishes of a majority of people in Northern Ireland and Scotland, that dangerous and unpredictable times lay ahead.
When the DUP, having played a particularly dubious role in the Brexit campaign, astonishingly went further and endorsed the shameless champion of English nationalism Boris Johnson, it should have been obvious that only negative consequences could follow.
The DUP has since realised the scale of its blunder in backing Mr Johnson, but has still attempted to deny its direct responsibility for the range of measures associated with EU withdrawal.
Some DUP voices have tried to blame the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was introduced as part of the UK's Withdrawal Agreement, without managing to offer any credible alternative plans for the checks on the movement of goods which inevitably accompanied Brexit.
Matters took a more sinister twist in recent days when firstly Mid and East Antrim Council, then Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and eventually the EU all decided to remove staff from their duties at the ports of Larne and Belfast after growing reports of intimidation.
Menacing graffiti has been appearing in loyalist areas and there have been suggestions that unknown groups have been noting vehicle number plates, although to date police have not indicated evidence of loyalist paramilitary involvement.
All threats against employees at the ports must be condemned, and police need to be provided with full cooperation across the board as they investigate the full background and work with all the authorities to complete a comprehensive risk assessment.
The protection of the Northern Ireland Protocol, painstakingly negotiated with the EU as a compromise to prevent disastrous outcomes elsewhere, is an entirely separate issue, as is the power struggle under way within the DUP over recriminations linked to its Brexit calamities and the dire implications of the latest opinion polls.
It is essential that senior figures at Stormont, as well as Dublin, London and indeed the EU, where officials were forced into an embarrassing u-turn over Irish policies only last week, display calm and mature leadership in the coming days.
