‘Vote early and often’ is an age-old catch-phrase on the Irish political scene. While the occasional super-democrat may have interpreted it literally, most people took it in the humorous tongue-in-cheek manner that it was offered. That is, until the Dublin government failed to get the Nice Treaty passed by referendum in June 2001. It was then that people started to see the true nature of ‘democracy’ in both the EU and the Twenty-Six Counties. Whatever about voting early, it was clear that ‘vote often’ was the way forward when it came to EU treaties, or more precisely ‘vote often’ until a majority vote YES.