Latest posts
Reflections on the campaign with Lisbon now fully ratified
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At 16.07 this Tuesday, 3 November, I got a call from one of those who I had worked with in the Ireland for Europe offices to say that some of those from Generation Yes were meeting for drinks later. I had thought at first it was just a meeting in a b...
Competition Time
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Ireland for Europe is offering a cash prize of €500 to a student who can correctly identify all of lies and misrepresentations in the Libertas ad in the Irish Independent today (01-10-09) and reference the correct article or position. E-mail us on...
Beware of Eurosceptics
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Dr Denis MacShane, Britain’s longest serving Europe minister from 2002-2005 writes how British Eurosceptics are pushing for Ireland to vote NO. OPINION: The Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty is a good one for British Eurosceptics only if it is a No...
Seamus Heaney launches fierce attack on Irish opponents of Lisbon Treaty
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The Guardian writes Ireland’s Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has launched a blistering attack on Irish opponents of the EU Lisbon Treaty, accusing them of manufacturing fear in the referendum campaign. The poet said that if Ireland votes “n...
Evidence on the doorsteps suggests slight swing to Yes
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The Irish Times has some encouraging news. IN THE late stages of last year’s Lisbon campaign, a rumour emerged that Irish people would be conscripted into a European army if the treaty were adopted. It was a viral story that started from the ground...
Pulitzer Prize-winning Armagh poet Paul Muldoon adds his voice to calls for a ‘Yes’
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Paul Muldoon has added his name to an impressive array of the Great and the Good from Northern Ireland who have done sterling cross-community work and whose letter appealing for a Yes vote appeared in the Irish Times at the weekend. In it they say:...
Our vote, our country, our future…let’s leave Fianna Fáil out of it.
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ith only two days left until the referendum, there’s a sense on the streets that people are tiring of all things Lisbon. While this ennui is certainly understandable, it is vital that complacency does not set in over the next 48 hours. To have...
Sinn Féin’s claims to be pro-European
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Talking about the European Treaty, Sinn Féin wrote in a pamphlet: The objective is a United States of Europe with a European army. Irish people will be compelled to fight whatever wars the European super-powers decide to wage. Neutrality will go and...
The Sundays Back the Treaty.
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It was great to see the three main Sunday broadsheets endorsing the Lisbon Treaty this weekend. At a crucial time in the campaign, the editorials all reiterated a fundamental point – that a ‘yes’ vote is in Ireland’s best interests. The Sund...
What Declan Ganley is not addressing
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Over the weekend, I looked back on the points Declan Ganley made at the launch of Libertas’s campaign two weeks ago. As I watched this, I found that nearly every point he made could be disputed, if not refuted. Below is a critical analysis of...
2008 – No, 2009 – Yes
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A significant number of public figures have changed their minds since last year. These have come from various perspectives, responding to the guarantees which we have received in December 2008 on the Commission and in June 2009 on a range of issues,...
Let’s Give the Full Picture, not Half of it!
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This poster is deceptive in that it tells the truth, but not the full truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In fact, it only refers to one part of the voting process instead of the two elements that are needed for a vote to take place in...
Economists for Europe – 5 Economists and one opinion
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As previously noted here, a recent Indecon survey reported that 90.8% of economists asked said that Ireland’s overall economic interests were likely to be best secured by a Yes vote. These were economists from the seven Irish universities, from...
26 + 1 — Just a temporary little arrangement
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Declan Ganley has made a lot of what the current President of the European Council, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, about what solution the European Council would find to the problem of number of Commissioners if we failed to ratify the Lis...
Why business and unions are campaigning for Lisbon this time
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Last year’s referendum in June 2008 took place under very different economic circumstances. While Bear Stearns had collapsed in March, and it was clear that the credit crunch had arrived, few realised what the true extent of the crisis would en...
Ploughing for Lisbon!
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Our volunteers at the National Ploughing Championships have been overwhelmed by the positive support they’ve received. Farmers have been going out of their way to show their support for our volunteers and the Treaty. While the Irish Farmers Associa...
Economic effect of the Lisbon Treaty vote
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Those on our side of this debate have been criticized for linking the Lisbon Treaty with jobs or recovery. It is, of course, not as simple as a claim that there will be jobs that will be created or maintained directly because of the vote on the Treat...
Jesuits supporting the Lisbon Treaty
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In an earlier post, I looked at the support that prominent Catholics have given to the European project. Of particular note in recent weeks have been a few Jesuits, making their voice heard first in their objection to Cóir’s misuse of Caravagg...
Cóir – a Cruel, Malicious and Deceitful Campaign.
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Yesterday, as I walked out of Croke Park, after a superb All-Ireland final, I found myself suddenly frozen in shock. My stomach churned and I felt absolutely sick to the core. In front of my eyes, on a poll in Jones Road, lay the most disturbing, gr...
The facts: Abortion and the EU
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Despite the clear guarantees which we have secured on successive occasions, Cóir have persisted with the pernicious deception that Ireland’s position on abortion is being threatened. It is helpful then to outline precisely what protections exi...
