'Betrayal? Ridiculous': Northern Ireland ready to move on from Brexit

Many unionists are angry but widespread public disorder over deal seems unlikely

The last time Downing Street foisted a deal on Northern Ireland's unionists, the backlash was swift and bitter. Hundreds of thousands poured on to the streets to protest. A mob punched and kicked the secretary of state outside Belfast city hall. They hit him with a union jack-draped flagpole, grappled him into a headlock and chanted, "Traitor, traitor, traitor."

It was 1985 and Margaret Thatcher had signed the Anglo-Irish agreement giving Dublin a say in Northern Ireland's affairs. It took burly bodyguards to save her secretary of state, Tom King, from the mob's wrath. Demonstrations, strikes and civil disobedience raged for months. "We say, 'Never, never, never, never!'" Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist party leader, bellowed to a crowd.