The moment Dermot Ahern, Irish justice minister, conceded that defeat was inevitable yesterday lunchtime the action in Brussels, shifted from the Berlaymont, the 13-storey star-shaped home of the European Commission, to a scruffy Irish bar on the other side of the street.
No campaign activists clustered in the shadow of the ‘Berlaymonster” they loathe, to celebrate the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty. It felt as though they had been joined in Kitty O’Shea’s by almost every reporter and camera crew in town. Even supporters of the Yes campaign were drawn to Kitty O’Shea’s in order to find a journalist to give their views to. With a pint (sorry half-litre), of Guinness in one hand, Nigel Farage, leader of the eurosceptic UK Independence party, accosted Andrew Duff, the British Liberal MEP who had played a role in drafting the original constitution. Would he accept defeat, Mr Farage demanded? Certainly not to him, was the riposte, before Mr Duff stomped off to address the waiting microphones.
It was as raw as genteel Brussels gets. “We keep asking the people and they keep saying No,” whooped Mr Farage – or, as another supporter of the No vote put it: “three out of three isn’t bad”.
After the Dutch and French rejection of the constitution that forced Brussels back to spend “a period of reflection” before going back to the drawing board to draw up the Lisbon Treaty, there was a sense of déjà vu. But this blow may be harder for Brussels to recover from. As each No result was displayed on the pub’s big screen TV a cheer went up. But the biggest roar was reserved for the appearance of MEP Kathy Sinnott, at the Cork count. The independent Brussels politician who was one of only two MEP to oppose the treaty. Her son was in the pub audience.
Joady Sinnott, 35, works for his mum and said: “This vote was not anti-Europe. The Irish love Europe. But if it is going to get more powers it has to get more democratic.” Gerard MaCarthy, an Irish waiter at the pub, disagreed. “I would have voted yes,” he said. “The Irish should remember all the money we got for infrastructure. It was only 60 years ago that Europe was at war. We should try to improve it not reject it.” Waiting for some word, any word, from the Commission – protocol decreed that Irish leaders speak first – diplomats huddle in corners plotting the future.
“There are a couple of ways forward,” joked one. “We could wait for climate change to drown Ireland or, since it’s halfway across the Atlantic anyway, tell them to join Nafta.”
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