‘No’ campaigners won’t get a walkover next time

THOSE who are concerned with the absence of ‘Christian values’ in the Lisbon Treaty would do well to remember that Hitler and his Nazis were purported Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, while the Czar of Russia, deposed in the revolution of 1917, was another whose ‘Christianity’ did little to benefit the serfs.

The 20th century saw the most horrendous crimes against humanity devised and implemented by alleged Christians.

However, Christianity in its real and positive sense is at the core of the European project without having to be spelled out in capitals in a treaty.

It is good to see, at last, a politician at senior level indicating the way forward. Dick Roche has recognised the inevitability that there will have to beanother referendum with presumably a different wording. The no camp did not win the first referendum — they got a walkover. Next time real facts will hopefully emerge to counter no vote advocates like the Cóir organisation which was active distributing literature at the Humbert Summer School saying Europe cheered as Ireland voted no.

They and others who have claimed that no voters dominate in the EU of course neglect the fact that the majority of EU citizens and countries who had the opportunity to vote on the constitutional treaty actually voted yes.

Cóir called at the Humbert Summer School for Europe to have ‘a new direction, not a new treaty’ — a direction which would meet the needs of a ‘Catholic country’ like Ireland.

Cóir will continue to have its own agenda and misrepresent issues but they and others will hopefully face responses in the next campaign which, based on facts, will convince the Irish people to vote yes.

Next time other high profile no advocates like Ulick McEvaddy will be asked to justify his statement at the Humbert Summer School that the US-dominated Nato is the preferred method of defending Europe rather than the creation of an EU-controlled defence organisation. He and the other vested interest groups will not have a walkover next time.

Cllr Declan MacPartlin

Camolin

Enniscorthy

Co Wexford