The Referendum Commission has its work cut out to eliminate public confusion over the Nice Treaty if the latest meeting organised by the National Forum on Europe is any guide.
Held in Newbridge, Co Kildare, the event featured an impassioned complaint from the floor over Fine Gael's alleged change of mind on the treaty. The speaker, a local businessman who said he was a party loyalist for 30 years and a follower of Alan Dukes, among others, described support of Nice as "the biggest U-turn in Fine Gael's history". Michael Noonan had "really only one boast in his short leadership of the party," he added, "and that was that he was the leader of the No vote in the last referendum".
It became gradually apparent that the businessman, an articulate and impressive speaker, was confusing his party's position in the abortion referendum with the first Nice campaign.
The speaker's target, current party leader Enda Kenny, might have been rendered temporarily speechless by the comments were it not for the fact that the forum's format takes groups of questions from the floor rather than allowing the platform to respond to each immediately.
Mr Dukes, who was in the audience, responded first, asking the speaker, "Where were you last year?" and then scribbling a note and passing it back to him.
When Mr Kenny finally got the chance to reply, he said he was "absolutely astonished" at the speaker's comments, adding that the only U-turn on Nice had been performed by "a member of the Government - Mr Ó Cuiv - who voted against last time and is now in favour."
Addressing the theme of how Ireland could promote its "values, traditions, and interests" in the foreign and security policy of an enlarging EU, Mr Kenny found inspiration in the Dark Ages, when Irish monks "colonised the minds of Europe" with Christian teaching. Many centuries later, he added, "our capacity to effect such change remains undiminished".
One of the No speakers in Newbridge, Mr Roger Cole, of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, said he would vote Yes if Ireland were excluded from the EU Rapid Reaction Force. "It is the army of the European Union. It is the army of the emerging EU empire."
But Mr Dukes accused Mr Cole and a fellow No speaker, Green TD Mr John Gormley, of "throwing around half-truths like snuff at a wake".
Another of the platform's Yes speakers, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said the Nice Treaty was the "only agreed means" by which enlargement could happen on the planned time-scale.
"You can't be glib about the alternative," he added.
