Over the past six weeks flag-draped protesters have become part of the Belfast landscape. Loyalists arrange demonstrations and roadblocks-up to 80 a night-on social media, which means local residents usually know roughly where they will take place. Belfast's bus company, Translink, tweets rolling updates on which services have been disrupted; taxi drivers get the news from their dispatchers. On days when many protests are expected, rush hour starts early; by evening, normally busy roads are almost deserted.
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