WHY IT IS TIME TO VOTE YES

Just like that, we’ve passed the equinox. Thanks to the Indian summer, one hardly noticed how we were inching deeper into September. Shortens the winter, they say. So, that means the voting cards will be arriving any day now. One’s civic duty calls. Here we go round the mulberry bush on a cold and frosty morning.

Some say it’s the same Lisbon Treaty, and in a way they’re right. But it’s different too.
For a start, it incorporates the guarantees that answer the misapprehensions and misrepresentations we were subjected to last time out by the “No” campaigners. But also, the national and international context has changed so utterly since the first Treaty was rejected that it changes the way one might now interpret the Treaty: that is, it changes the meaning.
This is because meaning is not a thing fixed forever. It can evolve, being subject to prevailing attitudes and beliefs and perspectives. Last time out, few understood the calamity that was unfolding all around the globe. Even fewer could have predicted what was about to happen to our public finances. Although nobody realised it at the time, the debate was about as relevant as the music played on the Titanic.
In that debate, insofar as there was one, some of the least attractive characteristics of the Irish were on show.
On the Yes side, there was a generalised smugness, an apparent assumption that if they kept it all low key it’d get through handy enough. While the change of Taoiseach didn’t help, there was scant evidence of any of the pro-Lisbon great and good getting up off the sofa to make their views known or to argue the virtues of the Treaty (which the Irish had, incidentally, drafted much of).
On the No side there was a toxic combination of paranoia, hysteria and legalism. By legalism I mean the tactic used in many referenda of over-interpreting the Treaty and in so doing raising some fearful but truthfully entirely implausible prospect.
But in fairness to the No side, strange bedfellows that they were (and are), they mobilised and communicated. They got lots of help from the British-owned meeja who were firmly agin the Treaty, not because they have any interest in Ireland or in the Treaty itself, but because they see an Irish rejection as a way of staving off British adoption of the Treaty until the Tories get back in 2010, thus initiating what they hope will be a process of British withdrawal from Europe…
In the population at large, there was a lack of knowledge that created the space for fear and confusion. True, there was an incredible level of negative background static, but major swathes of the voting population, especially the young, showed an astounding capacity to be manipulated by half-truths and distortions.
There was also a disturbing level of Irish exceptionalism. By this I mean a sense that we are somehow different, should be treated differently, should be more liked, are the subject of dark machinations in secret places, have a mission to save Europe from itself and various other shades of malarkey…
Thankfully, much more has been explained this time. The key fears exposed last time out have been addressed in the binding declarations. We have a Commissioner. And we have been rudely awakened from the dream that we’re somehow exceptional to the rest of the world. Which is good.
Also, many more supporters of the Yes side have revealed themselves – some, like Michael O’Leary, colourfully so.
Some on the No side have revealed more of their worldview too – for example, one No-supporting member of the commentariat said on RTE that we could survive outside of the core EU by joining with the UK in a new version of the European Free Trade Area…
Joining with the UK? That may well be what the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) wants to see, but it’s hardly what Sinn Fein are after. And that’s the problem. The No side encompasses a kaleidoscope of views and beliefs, many absolutely contradictory. The only thing they have in common is opposition to the Treaty.
It’s true that we won’t be thrown out if we vote No again. But we will, most certainly, be isolated. Ireland will become a backwater, blanketed once again by the UK in a new form of the old dependency. Give me Europe a thousand times over that woeful prospect.
When people go to vote on October 2, a lot of stuff will be flying around. Just remember that it’s not about the Government’s performance. It’s not about NAMA. There will be time to vent your anger on these, but this is not it.
And it’s not about tugging our forelock and making amends either. The voters had a perfect right to say Yes or No last time, just as they have every right to say Yes or No this time. We can change our minds. And I believe we will.
Much of what you will read, is about fear and loathing and looking-out-for-Number 1. But the European Union is actually about something much bigger and much greater. Its origins lie in the carnage of the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 wars, in which several hundred million Europeans were slaughtered.
Think about it. Seventy years ago this week, bombs were falling and armies were on the move. Since the European movement took hold, all this barbarism has been consigned to history.
The great peace and prosperity of the last sixty-plus years has been achieved by agreement and consensus between sovereign states, not through coercion or the hegemony of some imperial force. It’s a colossal achievement, and one in which we have been privileged to play a part. The Lisbon Treaty is just the latest chapter. The treaty is not a perfect document in every respect but what agreement of its kind ever is? I’ll be voting Yes. It is by far the better option for Ireland and for Europe.