IT was a small but passionate protest. 

Just over two dozen people gathered outside Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and waved blue and yellow starred flags, sang the European anthem and chanted “EU we love you”.

Given that the anti-Brexit protest was being held in the city where the dominoes started tumbling, with six-out-of-ten people voting to Leave, it was a largely uneventful affair. 

That is until they started wrapping up their flags and the aptly-named 70-year-old Mary Ganny stopped in her tracks and decided to give them a piece of her mind. 

The pensioner said the EU had ruined Britain, adding: “Why did my dad fight in the war? The Germans. They’re dictating to us. We may as well have just laid down and said ‘Come on Hitler, take over’.”

One of the organisers said, at 70, Mrs Ganning obviously knew what it was like prior to Britain joining the EU.

Watched by two bemused policemen and with a friend clapping her, Mrs Ganning said: “Yes, I do and it was better. It was a lot better, we weren’t dictated to by such as the Germans.”

Asked by someone else how Britain was dictated to, she said: “We have to obey their rules. We can’t do nothing unless we get permission off them.”

As she was challenged on the validity of her comments, Mrs Ganning turned on her heel and finished by saying: “You want to go back to school and find out all about history.”

Earlier, Greg Stone is a Lib Dem councillor in Newcastle who helped organise the North East for Europe campaign demonstration, gave a more sobering assessment. 

He said: “I was born in 1974 so I was born as a member of the European Union. I feel like my birthright is being taken away. 

“I always felt I was a Briton and Euro citizen and we are going to be losing that. 

“I think it’s going to be seen in history as a bad decision. We feel it is our democratic duty to stand up well keep on fighting for what we believe in. 

“At the minute, Theresa May is asking us to sign a blank cheque and we can’t support that.”

George Martin, 70, added: “I think that if you had another vote now we would remain. I don’t think people realised what they were going to be voting for.”

Daniel Punch, 23, Students’s Union vice-president at Sunderland University, said: “Here today to make sure that the European students who come to the city feel safe. 

“Because since the results of Brexit hate crimes have gone up by 100 per cent in the North-East.” 

Former teacher Ginny O’Farrell, 48, added: “The EU is not just a market. It’s not just about trade. It’s about peace. It’s about freedom for countries like Spain, Greece and Portugal who have had civil war and struggle. It’s about freedom to move and to live together and for us to move over Europe, as well.” 

Paul Austin, 72, a retired archaeologist who travelled from Carlisle said: “It’s a very sad day, that Theresa May is evoking Article 50 to take us out of the EU, which I think is a huge mistake. 

“The majority voted to leave in the referendum, but it was a non-binding advisory referendum.

“And the Government have hijacked it to put in place a very right-wing agenda.”

This is a city torn between its head and its heart, between what the people want but the possible consequences of what that could mean.

Sunderland is Britain’s top exporting city, with 60 per cent going to the EU, thanks mostly to the giant Nissan car plant that churns out half a million cars a year.

It employs around 7,000 people and tens of thousands more in the supply chain. It is the most productive car plant in Europe.

But this could be thrown into jeopardy after the car giant said it may “adjust” its business in the UK depending on the Brexit negotiations, with the North East already one of the worst places for unemployment in the country.

Ominously, chief executive Carlos Ghosn said the company would “re-evaluate the situation” once the final Brexit deal is concluded.

The city has also benefited from EU funding, which included Washington Business Centre receiving £3.4 million in European Development Funding and Sunderland Software Centre £4.4m.

But speaking just a few hours before the official triggering of Brexit, people in the city centre still seemed confident they had voted the right way.

Charles Goodacre, 62, a former taxi driver, said: “I’m glad this day has finally come, this is what the people voted for.

“I voted for Brexit and today is the day that vote starts to count. Things have been bad round here for a while and we needed a change.

“There’s been a lot of arguments about what happened but we can now get on with it.”

Janet Freeman, 66, a retired secretary, said she was worried about jobs but she had been worried just the same before Brexit too.

“I voted for Brexit so it’s good it’s going to start,” she said.

“I have become a bit concerned about what it might mean for jobs but I think we will make the best of it.

“It’s not right we were controlled from Europe, we need to control our own destiny.”

Stella Richards, 48, said she thought new opportunities would make up for any shortfall Brexit brought.

“We don’t need the EU, there is a big world out there for us to trade with.

“We also want to control our borders and immigration,” she said.