Unionist opposition to the agreement was so deep that it lasted for years, with protests ranging from political boycotts to mass rallies, demonstrations, and an increase in loyalist killings. Unionists objected not just to the text of the agreement but also to what a Protestant clergyman described as ‘all the stuff in there between the lines’. Many nationalists also believed, or at least hoped, that they detected a barely concealed agenda on the British side, with London signalling that it did not forever expect to be in charge of Northern Ireland.
