The smell of smoke still hangs over east Belfast. Residents are reeling. One woman, her voice raw, told me: 'I will never get over watching my home burn.
' Her words, a gut punch. Twelve hours earlier, she was making tea. Now, she's sifting through ash.
This is the human cost of a night of unrest that has rocked the devolved institutions. The violence was not random. It was orchestrated.
Loyalist anger, stoked by Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol, boiling over. But the trigger? A council decision to limit flags on lampposts.
Petty, some will say. But in Belfast, symbols are never petty. The focus is now on policing.
Stormont's Justice Committee has demanded an urgent review. Behind the scenes, whispers of a police operation under-resourced, outmanoeuvred. The PSNI faced petrol bombs.
They deployed water cannon. But for how many hours did the streets burn before reinforcements arrived? The blame game has started.
The DUP, seeking to deflect, points at Sinn Fein's refusal to condemn the violence. Sinn Fein, equally defensive, accuses the DUP of stoking the flames with its 'blame Brussels' rhetoric. Both are missing the point.
The real story is the breakdown of trust. Trust in the police to protect. Trust in politicians to govern.
Trust between communities. One local community worker told me: 'We're back to 1969, but with smartphones.' Hyperbole?
Perhaps. But the fear is real. The question now is whether this is a flash in the pan or the start of a long, hot summer.
The policing review will take weeks. Its recommendations, if implemented, could reshape how the PSNI handles dissident trouble. But reviews don't rebuild homes.
They don't soothe trauma. What Belfast needs is leadership. From London.
From Dublin. From Stormont. The silence from Number 10 is deafening.
The Taoiseach's office has offered solidarity. But words are cheap. The cost of this night will be measured in more than broken glass.
It will be measured in broken confidence. 'I will never get over watching my home burn,' she said. Neither will this city.
Not for a long time.
