It was like the first day of the new school term as the North's Assembly members filed into Stormont for their first meeting after the summer recess. Many were tanned after foreign holidays. Most sported new clothes. They chatted in the corridors with the enthusiasm of those who han't seen each other for a while, exchanging news and gossip. Spirits were certainly high.
Only a few minutes into business there was uproar in the public gallery. A group of 20 loyalist women, led by Ms Gina Adair, wife of Shankill UDA commander Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, shouted abuse at members of the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing.
They demanded that the party be expelled from the Assembly because of the UVF's murder of two men in the loyalist feud. PUP Assembly members Mr Billy Hutchinson and Mr David Ervine tried to put a brave face on it but looked a little shaken.
Ms Adair was accompanied by her son, "Mad Pup", as Johnny calls him. He wore an earring and baseball cap - his father's trademarks - and a dummy hung from his mouth.
The speaker of the Assembly, Lord Alderdice, struggled to maintain discipline as the women shouted.
"Order! Order! The gallery will be cleared if there is not silence. Please remove that woman," he bellowed at security guards.
The women continued shouting and the Assembly had to be suspended until they were removed.
It was much more civilised in the canteen where a Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Barry McElduff, explained it was his daughter Niamh's first day at school. "My wife saw us both off for the new term this morning," he joked.
His colleague, Mr Alex Maskey, showed off his new suit as he prepared for the Assembly's lengthy autumn business programme.
DUP member Mr Ian Paisley jnr bemoaned the fact that he hadn't yet had a haircut.
Back in the chamber, last term's curriculum was still to the fore as members argued over the flying of the Union flag and Sinn Fein's presence in government.