Hi °C | Lo °C By this time next week it should all be over - or will it? In all of the arguments about who can walk where, and who can protest where, and what music can be played or not played, no one is really sure what the outcome of the Twelfth will be, or how long it will take.
And no one really wants to mention the 'A' word - Ardoyne.
The marching question has not yet been answered. It is part of the unfinished business of the peace process.
The Parades Commission, the police and politicians will all be part of what happens in the days ahead. But it is the people who have the answers; people living on contested ground.
The police will tell you that they don't want to be part of this continuing argument; that they don't want to be in the middle of what happens.
But they are part of it; in the middle of a marching mess, seen by some as targets and as part of the problem, even though they are not the decision-makers in who walks, or doesn't walk, where.
In the control-rooms monitoring the parading here and protesting there, PSNI commanders will have a human rights adviser beside them and the Policing Board will also have its human rights lawyer there. This is the scrutiny of today's policing; the checking and double-checking of what can happen and what cannot.
And the focus will not just be on Ardoyne. The UVF attack on the nationalist Short Strand in east Belfast means there is the potential for standoff and confrontation there, too.
Last Friday evening, big-name mainstream republicans where on the ground - men who were part of the IRA 'war' - there to give reassurance to an isolated and vulnerable community once again feeling under siege; there to try to keep things quiet as an Orange march passed.
"Mainstream republicans will give leadership," Sean Murray said. "The danger is this [contested marches] could create a pretext for people who I describe as anti-peace process elements to come in and try to present themselves as defenders of the area. They have nothing to offer this community."
Murray - one of the most senior figures in the IRA's 'war' - is talking about dissidents who will try to turn the marching season into their playground; use it as something to make the argument that there is still an Orange state and that the PSNI is the RUC dressed up in different uniforms.
In the peace process, Sinn Fein has won the argument for the hearts and minds of the vast bulk of the republican community.
But the marching season is still something that dissidents can exploit; a scab they can pick at, use to pose the question - what has changed?
Recently, Murray confronted a senior dissident on the Springfield Road in west Belfast and told him he wasn't wanted at a protest against part of the route of the Whiterock Orange parade.
And, in the Short Strand, during the period of that UVF attack, mainstream republicans also challenged dissidents.
"Once the guns come out onto the streets, that totally escalates the situation," added Murray. And he talks about "a lot of energy . . . a lot of patience" to keep things quiet.
It should not be taken for granted. There are places where mainstream republicans will have the energy and numbers to keep the lid on things, and there will be places such as Ardoyne where that task will prove much more difficult.
Would the Orange Order ever think about walking away; think about taking another route? If they did - especially in north Belfast - it would be a massive contribution to the peace process.
The dissidents would be left with nothing to play with and play on and the police could step outside this marching mess.
It would be a huge step, but one worth taking.
