The smell of smoke still hangs over Belfast this morning. Blackened facades. Glass crunching underfoot. A city that has seen too much of this before.
Government sources confirmed to me late last night that a reconstruction taskforce is being assembled. The pledge came after a crisis call between the Northern Ireland Secretary and the First Minister. But on the streets, the mood is raw.
‘I will never get over watching my home burn,’ one resident told me. She stood outside the cordon, clutching a dog lead. Her flat, gone. Her neighbours, scattered. She spoke in short, broken sentences.
The unrest erupted on Thursday evening. What started as a protest over flags quickly spiralled. Petrol bombs. Baton charges. A bus set alight. Police say 12 officers injured, 7 arrests so far. But the political fallout may be far larger.
Behind the scenes, Westminster is jittery. A senior Tory backbencher told me the Prime Minister is ‘furious’ at the security services for not flagging the risk. Another whispered that the real fear is a summer of paramilitary activity. ‘We thought we had moved past this,’ they said.
The reconstruction pledge is standard. But the language is careful. No mention of ‘peace walls’ coming down. No new money announced. Just a promise to ‘work with local communities.’ That is code for: we are watching the polls.
And the polls are grim for the government. Our internal tracker shows a 7-point drop in Northern Ireland satisfaction ratings over the last month. The DUP is smelling blood. Sinn Féin is demanding answers. The centre is hollowing out.
I have been watching Whitehall’s reaction closely. The usual playbook is being dusted off: a ministerial visit, a photo op, a few cheques. But do not expect this to blow over quickly. These fires are political, not just literal.
One veteran Northern Ireland hand said to me: ‘The underlying poison is still there. Brexit. Protocol. Identity. You can rebuild a building. You cannot rebuild trust overnight.’
So the government pledges reconstruction. Cranes will arrive. Bricks will be laid. But the question no one is asking aloud: can the peace be reconstructed too?
Watch this space. The whispers from the Lobby suggest more chaos to come. Cabinet is divided on the response. The PM is distracted. And Belfast is waiting.
