Tragedy and travesty

This week was back to working with the guys. Unfortunately, the first thing that happened was we found out that the father of one of the boys died last weekend in a drowning accident. We were at the funeral, and the whole family were, understandably, in a mess. I always go back to the saying at these times, when I wonder what I can do, that sometimes the only thing that you can do is be there.
Just heard on the news after lunch time that there were disturbances in Garvagh last night, with throwing stuff at passing cars, damaging property and painting the kerbstones (near the end of the marching season!!!) and the UVF slogans on property. News like this makes me angry. I am sure that some of the mob were our regulars. I really want to beat some sense into them. That is the hard part of the job: loving the unlovely.