Antrim has slowly been turning pink in preparation for the Giro d’Italia next week but, in the meantime, it has resorted to some more familiar red, white and blue.
As news spread of Gerry Adams’s appointment with the police, fresh union flags appeared on lamp-posts opposite the PSNI station where he is speaking to detectives. So new are the flags that the creases from the packets they came in were still evident.
The young men with the ladder who put put up the flags late at night have long gone.
The press hordes have since taken over the vigil outside the gates of what the PSNI describes as its Serious Crime Suite.
The press have arrived in numbers, unfolded their technical gear and settled down to await developments.
RTÉ, the BBC, UTV and other broadcasting outlets have their satellite vans in place and their reporters are milling around waiting for something to happen.
Photographers say they have dozens of shots of the police station, the security gates and, of course, the new flags.
The scene is reminiscent of the one just a short distance away at the former British army base at Massereene where two British soldiers were shot by dissident republicans in 2009.
Then, as now, the satellite vans, the reporters and the photographers gathered.The British army has since sold the base and moved on.
Apart from the waiting, yesterday was dominated by Sinn Féin claims of politically motivated policing.
Martin McGuinness cited dark elements within policing and journalism at work.
This was met by strong denials from Enda Kenny, David Cameron, Peter Robinson and others who said the police were doing nothing other than their job.
Outside the gates of the imposing police base, meanwhile, the wait went on last night.
