The decisive victory for the Yes side in the Lisbon Treaty referendum will come as a massive relief to those involved in the political system.
More importantly, it is clear signal that the overwhelming majority of voters want Ireland to remain an outward looking country at the heart of the European project, rather than retreating back to an isolated position on the periphery.
The reasons for the big change of heart from the first referendum last year are many, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that economic crisis focused the minds of many voters on the importance of good relations with our EU neighbours in order to restore the country’s prosperity.
The stress by all those campaigning for a Yes vote on the economy and jobs, rather than the intricate details of the Lisbon Treaty, was crucial in keeping the minds of voters on the big picture rather than having them distracted by the legal intricacies of the treaty.
An allied issue was whether the people of Ireland wanted their country to be perceived a vibrant member of the biggest trading block in the world or a disgruntled small nation standing in the way of progress.
On the narrow political front the Yes vote will come as an enormous relief to Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his Government. His tenure in office was marred almost from the start by the defeat of Lisbon One.
He had to attend his first European Council meeting in June last year and explain to his prime ministerial colleagues why Ireland had voted No to a treaty which had been agreed under its presidency.
Mr Cowen’s confidence never seemed to recover from that disastrous start and he will be hoping that the result of Lisbon Two will lead to a reversal of his own fortunes. At the very least it should give him the confidence to do what needs to be done in the national interest on the issue of the public finances.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has come out of the campaign with his reputation enhanced. He spoke with passion and authority and handled himself effectively in media jousts with difficult opponents like Declan Ganley and Joe Higgins.
The major Opposition parties can take an equal amount of encouragement from the referendum result. Fine Gael and Labour put the national interest first by campaigning for a Yes vote. This was particularly important given the collapse of the Fianna Fáil vote in the recent local and European elections.
The Opposition parties had to persuade their voters to back Lisbon if it was to have any chance of being ratified.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny toured the country canvassing for a Yes vote and addressing public meetings while Labour leader Eamon Gilmore played an important role in persuading working class voters that they had nothing to fear from the treaty.
The Yes campaign of a variety of civic society groups was of at least equal importance. Pat Cox played an important role and Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary put his money where his mouth was and, despite the misgivings of some on the Yes side about his flamboyant style, he clearly had an impact.
The No side probably missed the presence of Mr Ganley for most of the campaign, although his return in the final two weeks didn’t make all that much difference in the end.
The posters put up by his Libertas organisation and the right wing group Cóir were clever and eye-catching but voters were not nearly as susceptible to such tactics this time around as they were in 2008.
The legal guarantees given by our 26 EU partners and the decision to allow all members states retain an EU Commissioner under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty took away some of the weapons from the No campaign.
Sinn Féin probably made a tactical blunder by not claiming ownership of the Commissioner issue as an excuse to get off the No hook. The party had made it a key part of its No campaign last year and could have claimed the decision to retain a Commissioner as a tangible victory and taken a neutral if not a positive stance second time around.
Instead the party campaigned for a No, as it has done in every European referendum since 1972. That is unlikely to have done anything to enhance the party’s prospects, following a series of disappointing election results.
The victory of the No side last year did inestimable damage both to Ireland’s reputation and its interests. The Yes victory will do a lot to restore both in the long term but it will take time.
In the more immediate future attention will now turn to the future of the Coalition and the state of the public finances. Adversarial party politics is about to return with a vengeance.
