Always read between the lines, especially when they’re written by those who once wielded guns.

In its letter to Boris Johnson, the Loyalist Communities Council writes: “…opposition to the (Northern Ireland) Protocol should be peaceful and democratic.”

But – and it’s a big but – it adds that the border in the Irish Sea “undermines the basis on which the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) agreed their 1994 ceasefire”.

Billy Hutchinson was sentenced to life for murder. A former loyalist paramilitary, he now leads the Progressive Unionist Party.

We met on Shankill Road, the loyalist heartland of Belfast. They’re fiercely loyal to the Queen here but equally critical of her government.

“I don’t think they feel less British,” he explained, “I think they feel there’s a threat to their Britishness.”

He said: “The anger is about Britishness. It’s not about the movement of goods. The movement of goods is the sideshow in all of this.”

“It’s really about British citizenship and how we have been treated differently in terms of the arrangements that Boris has put in place over Brexit,” he added.

Loyalists are not the only ones who are angry. The EU, the Irish government and nationalists are fuming over the British government’s unilateral action.

On Wednesday, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis announced that they were extending the grace period for checks in the Irish Sea.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill said: “I think the British government have again acted in bad faith.”

“They have demonstrated… that they are untrustworthy, that they are not reliable, that they are not true to their word when it comes to a negotiation,” the Sinn Fein deputy leader added.

Responding to the letter from loyalists, First Minister Arlene Foster said the Irish government had been reckless in talking up the threat of violence in the event of a land border.

The DUP leader added: “They say they have no difficulty with extending grace periods, yet they’re out saying that the UK government has broken international law. That’s simply not the case.”

What began as a trade dispute has turned into something much more dangerous – fresh tension over the age-old constitutional question.

And you don’t need to read between the lines when they’re spray painted on to the walls in loyalist territory: No border in the Irish Sea.

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