Although the European Union pointed its finger at Ireland and demanded a "you owe me" settlement, the Irish showed character and were not for sale!
The Irish people were the only people in the European Union allowed to vote on the EU Constitution camouflaged as the Lisbon Treaty and their vote should be respected.
Those Irish could not be fooled! Those Irish spoke in the name of all the muted and disenfranchised people of Europe. One doesn't need to be a clairvoyant in order to state that the majority of the people in the European Union would have done the same, if only they had been allowed to.
You don't change the rules of the game while playing it: If the leaders first negotiated a "Constitution for Europe" - rejected by those who were allowed to voice their opinion - then negotiated a "Treaty of Lisbon" with an identical purpose, but failed to have the courage to put it to a vote, in fear of another rejection, it is time to renounce the political union as a goal but return to the economic principles which established the European Union in the first place.
The Irish Prime Minister negotiated the lot in Lisbon and if he now doesn't get the confidence of the Irish people, he should be aware of his lack of understanding of the voice of the people.
The people of Europe don't want a non-elected "super-president". The people of Europe don't want all those non-elected officials to decide their day-to-day life. The people of Europe don't want the governments of the nations of the European Union to secure fat jobs for superfluous party members as bureaucrats in Brussels and travel from photo-opportunity to photo-opportunity and parade with bells, cymbals and pomp like emperors of (almost) forgotten times.
The governments of the nations in Europe have forgotten the principles of democracy-consultations with the people seem to be out of fashion. The only way forward for the governments is to consult the people and take their concerns as a reality.
We, the citizens of Europe, have to be grateful for the voice and vote of the sensible Irish in more ways than one.
The citizens of Europe should not be governed by power-hungry politicians in a mediaeval manner. We, the citizens of Europe, don't have to be in political isolation, and certainly do not need the tutelage of the Brussels bureaucrats. We are ready for more direct democracy and we would like to have it now!