Delighted campaigners told the Prime Minister he faced ‘electoral suicide’ if he ignored the result.
The Irish feared the (Lisbon) Treaty would dilute their country’s power in fundamental areas. The vote was also swung by concerns over large scale immigration from Eastern Europe.
Most of all, the Irish did not want to be bullied by European leaders.
On a momentous day in European history, Brussels put on an extraordinary show of contempt for the voters by denying the constitution is dead and showed every sign of preparing to ignore its own rules.
There were fears last night that EU leaders might try to force Ireland to vote again by offering an opt-out on contentious elements of the Treaty. But there were signs of resistance in Dublin, after Ireland’s Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore, who supported a Yes vote, said the view of the people should be respected.
‘There can be no question of putting the same Treaty back to another referendum in Ireland,’ he said.
And Ireland’s minister for European affairs, Dick Roche, said it would be difficult, if not impossible, for EU leaders to find a solution that would permit a second Irish referendum.
The Irish No vote means Mr Brown’s attempts to put his beleaguered leadership back on track will now be dogged by difficult questions about Europe.
With everyone expecting a ‘Yes’ from the normally pro-EU Irish, he had hoped that a toxic issue had been safely buried.