Ignored, bullied, patronised: why loyalists in Northern Ireland say no to Brexit ‘betrayal’

As the often volatile marching season approaches, bitter tensions over the EU protocol grow, along with a belief that NI is being cast adrift by a duplicitous British government

They gathered in their thousands at the top of the Shankill Road with banners and drums to send a message to the far side of the Irish Sea, where a treacherous prime minister played his charade in a kingdom no longer fully theirs.

Some waved union jack flags, others had union jack masks, one had a union jack balaclava, and they tramped behind marching bands with drums, flutes and cymbals, a percussive shockwave in the Belfast dusk.