As an American who has followed the debate in Ireland over the Nice treaty, I can say it is quite easy to follow on-line by accessing a number of different types of sites. The Irish Times is conservative, reactionary & Dublin 4 West Brit, and they would be the last place I'd go for balanced, unbiased information--unless I wanted to know what the position was of the Dublin 4 West Brit "liberal" (and reactionary) constituency!

The Irish Green Party was one of the main parties organized in opposition to the Nice treaty, as was Sinn Fein. A trip to those parties' websites might give people a different point of view, as well as additional insight into the thinking of progressive Irish voters opposed to the treaty.

As someone else has also mentioned, a move to abolish all references to the death penalty in the Irish consitution was also on the referendum, and the Irish voters decided to abolish all references to it in their constitution. So the referendum wasn't even remotely concerned with being a knee-jerk, jingoist reaction by racist Irish nationalists. There was a definite Irish context regarding the Irish citzenry's values in regards to the death penalty, increased militarization within the EU, as well as a concern that the expansion of the EU will be accomplished by a gutting of the power sharing controls originally agreed to by EU members to protect the smaller and weaker economies of Europe from the large and more powerful ones. That simply doesn't equate to an Irish obsession with isolationist protectionism, but rather, with Irish concerns for the balance of power between the large and small economic powers within the EU itself. It should be of concern to all the smaller economies in the EU, especially now that it looks like the last European economic superpower (Britain) will likely be jumping on the Euro bandwagon as well.

I don't think it's reasonable to make a leap of logic to say the vote was anti-Eastern European, or anti-immigrant, or knee-jerk nationalism, or racist. To say that just shows how little one actually knows about the vote on the ground in Ireland, not to mention about the power structure of the EU, the increased militarization of the EU, it's role in globalization and exploitation of poor countries, etc.

As to whether this was a progressive, rather than liberal response by Irish voters (the liberal establishment in Ireland is usually pro-Nice, pro-EU, and rabidly anti-Irish nationalist), I would say it was definitely more a vote which came down on the side of the progressive left, rather than centrist liberal Eurocrats--oops, I mean democrats, of course! It had precious little to do with Irish nationalism.

Rather, the debate and subsequent vote seems to have had more to do with the Irish perceptions of the distribution of power within the EU, and with Ireland's military neutrality (and the Irish citzenry's desire not to join the increasingly militarized "EU forces"). Irish troops already serve in military capacities through their involvement with NATO and the UN, and the Irish people aren't interested in becoming any further involved than that at this point (as the referendum has proved). Think about if folks--a vote against joining the expansion of a EU military force is also a vote against potential EU conscription of Irish troops by Brussels, to fight wars the EU powers choose to fight--which I assure you, will have precious little to do with the Irish or the Czechs...