Praise for those who defied Lisbon ‘bullying’

The Lisbon Treaty was backed on its second outing on Friday by 67 per cent of those who voted in the 26 County referendum.

An expected swing towards the ‘Yes’ side in the end proved to be substantial. The turnout was 58 per cent, up by five per cent from last year.

In the last outing, 53 per cent of voters in the 26 Counties said ‘No’ to the treaty.

The constituency with the highest ‘Yes’ vote on Friday was Dublin South, with 81.7 per cent in favour, with parts of Rathfarnham registering 90 per cent support.

Dublin South was closely followed by Dun Laoghaire, with 81.2 per cent in favour.

Only the two Donegal constituencies had a ‘No’ majority, with 51.5 per cent in North East and 50.3 per cent in South West voting against the treaty.

Dublin and the rest of Leinster recorded a 69 per cent Yes. In Munster, the figure was 67.2 per cent and in Connacht it was 65.2 per cent, while the three counties of Ulster in the 26 Counties recorded a 55.3 per cent Yes vote.

“To those hundreds of thousands of people who again voted ‘No’, I want to congratulate them for doing so in the face of huge pressure, including threats that a ‘No’ vote would have negative implications for jobs and the economy,” said Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, after the result emerged.

“You had the courage to make a stand for a better deal and to stand by the values of decency, citizenship, fairness and democracy.

“It is no surprise that there was a class divide in how people voted - those who gained little over the Celtic Tiger era were not swayed by promises from the Yes side of employment and prosperity,” he said.

The leader of the Socialist Party, Joe Higgins, said the “unprecedented well-financed grand coalition of the political establishment, big business, most of the print media and the EU authorities” delivered the ‘Yes’ vote.

“Bullying and fear was combined with extravagant promises about jobs and economic recovery. I congratulate those voters who stood up against the intimidation and threats and voted ‘No’,” said the MEP for Dublin.

He added: “I understand the anxiety of many who voted ‘Yes’ in the hope of better job prospects and security.”

The ‘Yes’ side had instilled “enormous fear” in an electorate already worried about jobs and the economy.

“We had a huge coalition of the Government, the main parties that are supposedly in opposition in the Dail, big business and the very biggest part of the printed press, who became vigorous players for the ‘Yes’ side rather than commentators or analysts,” he said.

Sinn Fein Dail leader Caoimhghin O Caolain said the Dublin government should take no solace from the result of the Lisbon Treaty referendum.

“The Government and their supporters in Fine Gael and Labour now have to deliver and demonstrate that their arguments will indeed change the economic condition in terms of recovery [and] the creation of jobs.”

Patricia McKenna, chairwoman of the People’s Movement and former MEP, described the result as “inevitable”. The result was not really a vote of support for the treaty, she said.

“The fears and insecurities of voters were skilfully tapped into by an illegally over-funded ‘Yes’ campaign to ensure that people voted not out of certainty but out of fear.”

Ms McKenna criticised what she described as a “cosy consensus” of political parties backing a ‘Yes’ vote. “This void has to be filled by new political forces untarnished by corruption, greed, the ideology of ‘power for power’s sake’.”

National Platform has organised a petition which it hopes will delay ratification on the basis that the 26-County government “ran a fraudulent and illegal campaign”. It can be viewed at https://www.gopetition.com/online/31224.html

COIR

The anti-Lisbon Treaty group Coir may become a political party, targeting disaffected Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein supporters as members, according to its spokesman Brian Hickey.

The group is aligned with hardline anti-abortion group Youth Defence and advocates socially right-wing policies as well as traditional Catholic nationalism.

Mr Hickey said he believed there was now room for a “patriotic, conservative and socially conscious party” to represent people who did not support existing political parties.

“We are certainly considering forming Coir into a political party because there’s obviously a gap there in the Irish political spectrum,” he said.

People who joined Fianna Fail when it was “a genuinely conservative and republican party” now felt “completely disillusioned”, Mr Hickey claimed.

“So I’d say quite a lot of disaffected members of Fianna Fail [would be potential supporters]; perhaps members of Sinn Fein who feel uncomfortable with that party’s position on all sorts of social and moral issues would also be potential supporters.”

RESULTS BREAKDOWN

Carlow-Kilkenny:
Yes: 42,499 (70.53%); No: 17,755 (29.47%)

Cavan-Monaghan:
Yes: 34,740 (61.99%); No: 21,301 (38.01%)

Clare:
Yes: 33,707 (72.32%); No: 12,898 (27.68%)

Cork East:
Yes: 31,956 (66.10%); No: 16,387 (33.90%)

Cork North Central:
Yes: 21,642 (55.81%); No: 17,136 (44.19%)

Cork North West:
Yes: 27,249 (69.53%); No: 11,942 (30.47%)

Cork South Central:
Yes: 36,040 (66.85%); No: 17,874 (33.15%)

Cork South West:
Yes: 23,764 (67.17%); No: 11,615 (32.83%)

Donegal North East:
Yes: 14,156 (48.54%); No: 15,005 (51.46%)

Donegal South West:
Yes: 15,623 (49.73%); No: 15,794 (50.27%)

Dublin Central:
Yes: 18,545 (61.94%); No: 11,396 (38.06%)

Dublin Mid-West:
Yes: 21,435 (61.49%); No: 13,424 (38.51%)

Dublin North:
Yes: 36,971 (72.68%); No: 13,895 (27.32%)

Dublin North Central:
Yes: 23,692 (71.11%); No: 9,624 (28.89%)

Dublin North East:
Yes: 21,045 (63.46%); No: 12,117 (36.54%)

Dublin North West:
Yes: 15,734 (55.04%); No: 12,850 (44.96%)

Dublin South:
Yes: 47,549 (81.67%); No: 10,672 (18.33%)

Dublin South Central:
Yes: 25,854 (57.97%); No: 18,742 (42.03%)

Dublin South East:
Yes: 23,478 (78.67%); No: 6,365 (21.33%)

Dublin South West:
Yes: 23,192 (58.91%); No: 16,178 (41.09%)

Dublin West:
Yes: 21,429 (68.50%); No: 9,852 (31.50%)

Dun Laoghaire:
Yes: 45,917 (81.17%); No: 10,651 (18.83%)

Galway East:
Yes: 30,549 (68.11%); No: 14,306 (31.89%)

Galway West:
Yes: 31,000 (66.34%); No: 15,732 (33.66%)

Kerry North:
Yes: 19,543 (63.58%); No: 11,193 (36.42%)

Kerry South:
Yes: 20,092 (66.39%); No: 10,170 (33.61%)

Kildare North:
Yes: 32,012 (76.19%); No: 10,002 (23.81%)

Kildare South:
Yes: 21,586 (69.72%); No: 9,373 (30.28%)

Laois-Offaly:
Yes: 46,624 (73.17%); No: 17.097 (26.83%)

Limerick East:
Yes: 30,210 (67.41%); No: 14,607 (32.59%)

Limerick West:
Yes: 23,366 (69.32%); No: 10,343 (30.68%)

Longford-Westmeath:
Yes: 30,870 (65.64%); No: 16,156 (34.36%)

Louth:
Yes: 30,116 (61.02%); No: 19,241 (38.98%)

Mayo:
Yes: 34,056 (61.71%); No: 21,132 (38.29%)

Meath East:
Yes: 27,822 (72.31%); No: 10,653 (27.69%)

Meath West:
Yes: 23,103 (64.88%); No: 12,504 (35.12%)

Roscommon-South Leitrim:
Yes: 25,580 (65.97%); No: 13,194 (34.03%)

Sligo-North Leitrim:
Yes: 21,295 (64.45%); No: 11,744 (35.55%)

Tipperary North:
Yes: 25,768 (70.38%); No: 10,846 (29.62%)

Tipperary South:
Yes: 22,712 (68.42%); No: 10,483 (31.58%)

Waterford:
Yes: 30,744 (68.53%); No: 14,116 (31.47%)

Wexford:
Yes: 39,463 (65.20%); No: 21,067 (34.80%)

Wicklow:
Yes: 41,540 (70.75%); No: 17,174 (29.25%)

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