Hundreds attended anti-protocol rallies in Belfast on Friday night.
Several hundred people attended the Belfast protests, which included a number of groups.
In East Belfast, a number of speakers addressed the rally, including Mervin Gibson of the Order of the Orange.
He said: “We stand on this platform as trade unionists who oppose the protocol. We may differ on other points, we may have different accents and priorities, but we are standing here tonight united against the protocol. I know many of you there – and you have different loyalties, you belong to different gangs, you support different football teams, as far as I know, there may even be some blue men here tonight.
“This generation is facing a new threat – protocol, a threat that came from within, a threat that was agreed and agreed upon by Boris (Johnson).”
The Belfast rallies are the latest in a series in Northern Ireland, outlining union and loyalist opposition to the post-Brexit protocol, which provides for additional inspections of goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain.
It is strongly opposed by the Unionists as a border in the Irish Sea.
East Belfast candidate Joan Bunting said “our culture and identity have been under attack for decades.”
“We will not be reduced and we refuse to be demonized,” she told an audience in East Belfast.
“We are telling the Irish government that we will work with you as neighbors, but look at your own work. Watch your own country and keep your nose away from the home affairs, trade and constitutional status of this UK.
“We are telling the EU that we are not your currency, we are not your lever, we will not be your hostage and we are not a divorce agreement.
Loyalist activist Moore Holmes also addressed the rally.
He said: “What we have witnessed tonight is a fantastic demonstration of unity and solidarity across the trade union and loyalist community against the protocol.
“This cannot end here. The same unity of purpose that we must demonstrate in the voting booths on May 5 and must be shown after the election.”
Jim Alistair addressed a rally against protocol in northern Belfast on Friday.
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