On the march/Carl O'Brien: Everywhere, it seemed, the shadow of terrorist attacks in London loomed over the activities of protesters and campaigners gathered in Edinburgh for the G8 meeting.
Protests organised to mark issues such as climate change were cancelled. The eco-camp in Stirling, which was at the centre of violent clashes between protesters on police on Wednesday, was quiet.
In all, a strange sombre silence hung over a meeting of world leaders.
For the campaigners and protesters seeking to provoke a debate on issues such as climate change, trade injustice, debt cancellation and aid, it has been a frustrating week.
The focus has been switched firmly on to often brief clashes between black-hooded anarchists and police in what have otherwise been peaceful demonstrations.
Tara O'Leary, the community co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the sense of frustration has been growing.
She said: "When you go on these events, you see thousands of people taking part peacefully. It's a pity the media insist on focusing on the minority causing trouble, especially the kind of trouble which could occur on any Saturday night."
Mark Ballard, a Green MP, has also been gritting his teeth in frustration this week. "I think the people dressed in black played into the hands of an agenda that says all people opposed to the G8 are mindless thugs, and it blotted out the genuine concerns of hundreds of thousands of people. It is deeply, deeply frustrating," he said.
Even the Make Poverty History campaign, which had dominated the world headlines through the Live 8 concerts and 225,000-strong Edinburgh march, began to feel its message derailed by the violent outbursts.
Around the globe on Wednesday, the day Bob Geldof had branded the Long Walk to Justice, television viewers were greeted by scenes of pitched battles and violent struggles rather than eight of the world's most powerful men feeling the pressure of one of the world's biggest civil movements.
"How do you compare the people here - dignified and respectful - with the people who have no real political agenda?" Geldof said this week.
What he would love to do, he said, was to bring some of those anarchists to see dying children in Malawi and ask them: "What have you done to alleviate their suffering?".
One of the organisers of the Make Poverty History campaign, Catherine Cullen, tried to sound more upbeat.
"I don't think we've been drowned out at all. We had a quarter of a million people marching on Saturday, and there was a magnificent Live 8 concert in Murrayfield on Wednesday night, with 50,000 people, which was incredibly positive," she said.
As for anarchists who were drawn into violent clashes with police, they take a tortured position on their tactics. While they say they are not inherently violent, they approve of "direct action", which has involved everything from charging at police lines to smashing windows.
"We can protest in a march, but direct action is the most effective way to get your message heard," said one member of Dissent, a loose alliance of libertarians and anarchists, formed to disrupt the G8 summit.
"There was a lot of needless provocation by police. Even the local people said that."
While it has been a wearisome and often exasperating week for campaign groups, many do see the placement of issues like climate change and debt reduction on the political agenda as an achievement.
"It's a tremendous achievement for the global justice movement, the jubilee movement and all those groups to get these issues talked about seriously by politicians," said Tara O'Leary.
"There's never been such a popular feeling behind these issues. It is a shift in power."
Mark Ballard added: "Even though I'm pessimistic about the outcome [ of the G8], I'm optimistic because it's changed the political debate. Now probably every child in the country, for example, knows a person in Africa dies due to malnourishment every three seconds because they saw George Clooney click his fingers in the advert."
