Premature conflagration

At 5 a.m. we left our house in East Belfast to drive downtown to catch the 5:30 a.m. bus to Dublin, which takes two hours and allows mom to catch her 9:50 a.m. flight home. Customs clearance is provided in Dublin, so travellers need to allow extra time.
Typically, the Night of July 11th is when bonfires are lit to terrorise neighbourhoods, I mean celebrate King Billy’s victory over King James in 1690. Turns out, yesterday a court ruled that one of the bonfires in East Belfast was too high, given its proximity to housing and a children’s play park. The court ordered the size of the bonfire to be reduced.
Contractors moved in early this morning--under police escort--to reduce the size of the bonfire. At some point in this operation, the bonfire was lit by the hooligans, I mean good loyalists. As we drove by at approximately 5:10 a.m., the flames were about three storeys high. There were fully kitted out riot police everywhere--numbering in the 100s. And probably 100 fully armoured police Land Rovers.
What a lovely final impression for mom as we drove to the airport. FFS. Here’s an article about it.
I am appalled that politicians and the police seem cowed by the bastards who build these massive bonfires. The contractors were in vans with no license plates to prevent retribution. The East Belfast paramilitaries behind all the fun and games seem to have the upper hand in this annual “celebration of culture” which people in the neighbouring areas do not want. They don’t want their kids recruited into criminal gangs and they don’t want their neighbourhood terrorised by angry drunk men.
This crap aside, mom’s trip to Dublin was uneventful, my trip home was uneventful. I face a lot of deadlines in the coming days but got only enough done today to set me up for tomorrow, when I have two files due for quarter-end. Said files to explain relative performance of two international funds managed by T. Rowe Price. For the quarter and year. This requires many data inputs, not all of which were available today.
So I could relax and watch Croatia beat England 2-1 in the World Cup. I felt bad for England. English fans don’t usually support the team because it is made up of multi-millionaire prima donnas. This year, the manager put together a team of younger players with lower profiles and they seemed to generate the enthusiasm lacking in previous World Cups. However, the Croatians were more aggressive and played a better game, converting only some of the many chances they made for themselves.
7-11