Mikey, NOTHING will happen to the border between The Republic and Northern Ireland it will remain an open / soft border. That had to be guaranteed to get the DUP to stay on side.
Further Scotland, Wales and London all said that if Northern Ireland ,which is as much part of the UK as they are , got ANY sort of special relationship with the EU it would HAVE to apply to them as well. So it was a case of either we had a UK that had NI, Scotland, Wales and London with a different relationship to the EU than the rest or we all had the same as NI.
So, we are now staying in the customs union and in the EEC but leaving only the EU. I see that as leaving the EU in name only I think you will see it the same way. Even more we have agreed that the ECJ will still have the same role as it has now for at least 8 years after we leave the EU and will retain a lesser role permanently.
We have agreed the all EU citizens in the UK will retain all the rights they have now and vice versa, and that this will not change. Except that citizens from the EU who want to come to the UK after brexit will have to register their names with the local authority 6 months after arrival if they want to remain here.
All in all , we are getting out of the EU in name only , which is exactly what I predicted on here months ago.
There is still however a much bigger hurdle.
Once the full deal is agreed between the EU and the UK it has to be taken back to every single one of the other 27 EU states for them to individually debate it in their own parliaments , vote and agree with it.
Just one out of the 27 EU parliaments disagreeing with even part of it and the entire deal is thrown out .