Politics is supposed to be war by other means but at Stormont yesterday, one wasn't so sure. There was a great blurring of the edges between politics and pugilism. At the end of the day, though, the power-sharing process was fully back in business.
In the corridors of Parliament Buildings in the afternoon, the UTV man was looking for politicians to appear on the main teatime news broadcast. "We need big hitters," he said.
This was a couple of hours after the main bout of the day in the great hall of the house on the hill, so most politicians took the gag good-naturedly. They were calmer then, you see. They had vented some very bad karma, built up since Friday.
No life-threatening injuries were sustained in the fracas, although at times you feared there could have been a couple of coronaries. John Kelly, now an MLA, was a former IRA leader and central figure in the arms crisis of 1970. "This was a 'hold me back, let me at him' melee," he said.
Which was a good description. A few fists were clenched, arms were raised, people were manhandled, pushed and jostled. Fighting poses were adopted but no one appeared to have been actually punched. It was said, though, that some of the people in the centre of the "mill" who looked most innocent from the waist up executed some fearsome, unseen ankle taps.
Mr Kelly blamed the DUP for the trouble, as did most of the pro-Belfast Agreement camp. Ulster Unionist Assembly member Ms Joan Carson complained that some of the DUP people in the hall pushed her to the ground. Dr Alastair McDonnell said he had to defend himself against a "prop forward-type attack".
Dr Ian Paisley said it was mostly the fault of "Sinn FΘin/IRA". Mr Roger Hutchinson of the DUP contacted the police to complain that a Sinn FΘin MLA had kicked and bloodied his leg.
What was clear was that the angriest people at Stormont yesterday were the DUP politicians. They were incensed that despite various legal, political and procedural ruses they were unable to block Mr Trimble's reinstatement as First Minister and the election of Mr Mark Durkan as Deputy First Minister.
The DUP won't give up, however. Deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson said the party would be back in court to challenge Dr John Reid's announcement of the next Assembly elections for May 2003.
After Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan were elected with the support of three Alliance members and one Women's Coalition MLA they went to take their oaths of office.
But the DUP corner couldn't tolerate it. As Mr Trimble spoke they hollered, "cheater, cheater, cheater."
For half a second they were stumped when Mr Durkan took his Deputy First Minister oath. No point in calling him a unionist traitor.
Then the Rev William McCrea came to the rescue. "Deputy cheater," he shouted, a refrain quickly taken up by his colleagues.
They continued with their taunts of "traitor and cheater" as Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan went into the great hall to address the media, which eventually spilled over into the disturbances witnessed on your televisions last night.
But at the end of the scrap David Trimble was still standing, with Mark Durkan in the victors' corner beside him.
It took a full 15 rounds but when the final bell rang devolution was restored and Northern Ireland, at last, again had a First and Deputy First Minister.
Mr Trimble was sanguine about the commotion. "It was a darned sight better than Banbridge, but what do you expect?" he said, reflecting on the verbal and physical abuse to which he and his wife Daphne were subjected by some DUP and loyalists during the last Westminster election count.
Mr Trimble handled his first day back in office with some assurance. He was dismissive of the trouble, blaming it chiefly on the anti-agreement side of the house and their supporters. But he acknowledged that unionist disaffection with the agreement must not be taken for granted.
"The people who want to wreck this are playing on those genuine concerns, and I would like to say simply to unionists who were feeling some of those concerns that I understand their feelings on a range of issues. And I think I have demonstrated over the course of the last number of months that I am prepared to take issues on, even if it is difficult to do that," he said.
As all the institutions of the agreement, including the North-South element, cranked back into gear, Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan looked like they will work reasonably well together, although there will be differences - there is no question on that score.
Yesterday was unseemly, but it certainly wasn't unprecedented. Indeed it was ironic that in the Assembly on Monday, the now former Deputy First Minister, Mr SΘamus Mallon, said that while current politics might appear pretty depressing, he could remember the 1970s when there were actual fisticuffs in the chamber.
"This wasn't a historic day for Northern Ireland" was how one wag described the shenanigans. "It was a prehistoric day."