Belfast blast

I'm not too good at keeping up with the news, but even I had heard about the pizza shootings outside the barracks, when 2 soldiers were killed, before I went up on my planned research trip but I was up there before I found out that a policeman had also been killed.
It was very quiet where I stayed, but as the week wore on, it seemed to get a bit more rowdy, with a certain amount of drunken shouting at night but in the morning all would be orderly, with crowds of uniformed schoolchildren walking to school and patient traffic jams of cars trying to get into the city centre.
I walked against the tide, past large solid Victorian housing set back behind stone and brick walls or high hedges. Mature trees lined the avenues and all was peaceful. Walking back again in the late afternoon or evening was even quieter. I might notice the odd house with more fortification than would be normal elsewhere and police vehicles were often unmarked cars or armoured vans.
By Friday I noticed a number of young people and schoolchildren in fancy dress and some were clearly anticipating St Patrick's Day which was not until the next Tuesday. The good-natured mood anticipated a holiday. I went back home on Friday.
St Patrick's Day: some university students erupted onto the street from a party in a small brick terraced house and started a serious riot, some scraps of which I saw on the tag-end of the news.
All the pent-up feeling from the previous week finding release? or another symptom of disaffected youth? Previously, I would have been quick to agree that it was the violent nature of Belfast youth - but that was before I went there.