"You go there and tell them that I said: 'NO SURRENDER!'"
Confidence early on Monday that an agreement was within reach came to nothing when, during a working lunch with the European commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, May was forced to pause discussions to take a call from Arlene Foster.
Comment: Remember her? That's the leader of the DUP, the only reason Theresa May's Conservatives are still in power in London:
Meet the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Britain's loyal fundamentalists in Ireland
The unionist leader, whose party currently provides the Tories with a working majority in the Commons, told the British prime minister that she could not support Downing Street's planned commitment to keep Northern Ireland aligned with EU laws.
Comment: The utter fecklessness of the Tories' EU referendum is the gift that keeps on giving.
The situation is currently as follows:
Whichever UK government is in power, the referendum result means the UK must leave the EU.
The UK must also - somehow - uphold the joint British-Irish Good Friday agreement, which it can't do if Northern Ireland leaves the EU while the Republic remains in it.
The UK's current leadership relies on a coalition with the tiny DUP party, sworn enemies of the Irish, to govern.
The DUP is so paranoid of even the potential for reunification of both Irish states that the phrase "continued regulatory alignment" between Republic and Province triggered them to fire the 'gun' they have pointed at May's head, thereby sinking, it appears for now at least, the deal reached between her government, the Dublin government and Brussels.
This in turn prompted the Scottish nationalists to hint that any precedent set whereby Northern Ireland acquires special 'EU' status within the UK could also be sought by Scotland. For good measure, the Mayor of London suggested as much for his city too.
What a complete clusterf*ck. The UK is threatening to come apart at the seams.