And Jesus wept.

The sad thing is, it's not a surprise that it's happened; it was always a question of "when" rather than "if". A beautiful country with fantastic people and a hard core of fuckwits.

No, parts of this are surprising. That there are riots certainly isn't surprising; happens all the time, and everyone just ignores them these days. This was different: a bunch of hardcore Loyalist thugs set out to kill police officers in a series of pitched battles. That is rather surprising.

It says a lot for how tough the police are over here that none of them have been killed.

I hope and pray that you, your family, and your community are and remain safe.

Thanks, Stephen. I'd usually say you were being unnecessarily melodramatic, but it actually is pretty bad for once. We'll be fine where we live, but there's always the possibility of property damage (though we've moved our car to the in-laws', where it should be safer.)

The danger, where we are, isn't rioting. The danger is that, while the police are so tied up with the riots, various criminals take the opportunity to get away with things in other areas. That's what happened with the bus hijacking.

Belfast's being shut down at four this afternoon.

Thank for the updates from the front line Squander 2.

That said, what did you want to be moving over there for? Really?

My mate and I last night set out on an evening's exploration of olde Hitchin last night. Plenty of Tudor, Stuart, Georgian and Victorian buildings to examine and no terrorists or shootings in sight.

It's great over here, Mark. Really. Friendliest people in the world (with the possible exception of Chicagoans), beautiful scenery, relaxed and peaceful way of life. No sniggering at the back there.

First time I came over was in '93, with the Troubles still raging. I was expecting a bit of a war zone — what you see on TV. I was surprised, to say the least. Come visit. It's great.

Safer than London.

If we'd had dyslexic removal men we could have possibly ended up in Bangor. Perhaps that's what occured when the IRA planted a bomb in Bognor's high street back in 1994.