Posted on 09/29/2002 10:24:24 PM PDT by MadIvan
They sound quaintly rustic but nowadays the Irish national ploughing championships are the biggest event in the rural calendar, less a relic of a bygone era than a testament to the generosity of European agriculture subsidies.
Here, among the gleaming tractors and the well-upholstered farmers gathered in the countryside of Co Laois, south of Dublin, Bertie Ahern, Ireland's prime minister, was to be found preaching the virtues of European Union membership to people who should need little convincing.
Yet behind Mr Ahern's genial smile lurked a deep anxiety. On Oct 19, Ireland's voters go to the polls in a re-run of last year's referendum on the Nice Treaty.
Mr Ahern has virtually promised his EU counterparts that the Irish will say "Yes", unlike last time, when they rejected the deal, thus threatening to unravel plans to enlarge the EU in 2004.
The arrogance and presumption of this is astonishing - Ivan
Ten countries, among them Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia, are waiting to join the club but need Nice - which sets out the rules for a bigger EU - to unlock the door.
All existing 15 members of the union must ratify the treaty and so far 14 - including Britain - have done so through their parliaments. Only the Irish, who are constitutionally obliged to hold a referendum, are standing in the way.
So they are being frogmarched back to the polling booths to reverse the decision they reached just 15 months ago.
This is European democracy, Henry Ford style - you can reach any answer, as long as it is yes. In simply refusing to recognise the outcome of the first referendum, the government makes the point of the No campaigners more eloquently than a thousand speeches.
They argue that the EU is undemocratic, unaccountable and remote and that Nice will make matters worse by reinforcing the power of the big nations at the expense of the small.
The issue is complicated in Ireland by concern for its traditional neutrality, since Nice contains provisions for an EU army.
As in previous EU referendums, the establishment is united behind the Yes campaign.
The main political parties, big business, farming organisations, the trade unions, most of the media and the Roman Catholic Church are all for Nice.
The pressure on the Irish to change their minds is enormous. As one campaign poster puts it, they have a gun pressed to their collective heads.
Dublin is awash with emissaries from the candidate countries who have come to plead their case.
Over the next three weeks the Yes campaign will massively outspend its rivals on media advertising.
By contrast, the No camp is a motley assortment of fringe parties, including the Greens, Sinn Fein, socialists, Marxists and Right-wing eurosceptics.
The Left does not like the economic liberalism of the free market or the power of big business.
The Right objects to the superstate ambitions of Brussels and the prospect of a two-tier Europe, with small countries frozen out.
Neither side is opposed to enlargement of the EU. Indeed, many believe that if there is another No vote a legal loophole will be found to ensure the applicant countries can join.
What could prove to be the key issue in this referendum campaign is the very fact it is taking place at all.
Not for the first time - remember Denmark after Maastricht in 1992 - a small EU nation is being dragooned into overturning its democratically obtained verdict. At least the Danes secured an opt-out from joining the euro before they reversed their No.
The treaty on which the Irish are being asked to think again is unchanged, though some guarantees on neutrality have been given.
Mr Ahern and his supporters hardly bother to justify this force majeure. They rely upon the electorate accepting that there was something wrong with the June 2001 referendum.
Although it produced a clear 54-46 victory for the No side, the turnout was just 35 per cent and this mandate is considered sufficiently unsatisfactory for another to be sought.
On the other hand, nobody for a moment believes that Ireland would be holding a second referendum had the same numbers produced a Yes vote.
A recent poll showed support evenly split between the two camps with a large number of undecided voters. The latter may be swayed by the growing unpopularity of Mr Ahern's coalition government, which was returned to power in May.
Leaked papers suggest that ministers did not tell voters the extent of planned spending cuts during the election campaign and Mr Ahern has been drawn into a corruption scandal surrounding his former Fianna Fail foreign minister, Ray Burke.
Alan Dukes, a former leader of the Fine Gael opposition, says that nothing less than Ireland's future in the EU is at stake on Oct 19.
By a rich irony Ireland is due to hold the rotating presidency of the EU in 2004 when the next 10 countries hope to join under the Nice provisions. Dublin would host the accession ceremony.
"If there is a No vote there will be 10 naked flag-poles and who will be responsible? Us," says Mr Dukes.
The Irish are facing moral blackmail. If they vote No, they are told they will deprive 70 million people of the benefits they have themselves reaped from EU membership, even if the money has now virtually dried up.
Well I think part of the problem is that the EU has been generating publicity for itself in various forms for 50 years. The opposition has not been coherent, nor working nearly as long.
I forget who said it, but it was once said a lie repeated often enough gets accepted as the truth. And that's exactly what we're seeing - people believing they can maintain their identity and sovereignty by pooling both with other nations. It won't work. In the long run, I am sure, people will see it.
Regards, Ivan
I agree Ivan, it's horrible. I bet they are angry as all get out, and with very good reason! This is moral blackmail, coersion, whatever. I dearly hope the Irish hold the line and maintain their "freedom" from the EU.
Woo hoo!! YOU GO GIRL!! Go kick some fierce Irish arse for we ancestors in the States, eh??
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