'Is it a New Allowance?' Irish Entry to the EEC and Popular Opinion

The rejection of the Lisbon treaty by the Irish electorate in June 2008 has led to a renewed questioning of Ireland's commitment to the 'European project'. Since the original referendum on 11 May 1972 when the electorate voted by a massive 83 percent in favour of joining the EEC, Iris...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Irish political studies 2008-12, Vol.23 (4), p.533-553
Main Authors: Murphy, Gary, Puirséil, Niamh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accession
Area studies
Attitudes
Economic policy
Electorate
Europe
European Union
Ireland
Membership
Political conditions
Public opinion
Referendum
Referendums
Treaties
Voters
Voting
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The rejection of the Lisbon treaty by the Irish electorate in June 2008 has led to a renewed questioning of Ireland's commitment to the 'European project'. Since the original referendum on 11 May 1972 when the electorate voted by a massive 83 percent in favour of joining the EEC, Irish attitudes to European integration have become increasingly sceptical. In that context this article re-evaluates public opinion at the time of the original referendum. Based on extensive original research, this article examines the levels of public knowledge and attitudes towards the EEC prior to the 1972 referendum, and suggests that despite the large yes vote, Irish people were less enthusiastic than this result implies and can more accurately be termed reluctant Europeans as the sense of inevitability of the outcome of a decade long process left them with little choice but to sign up for membership.
ISSN:0790-7184
1743-9078
DOI:10.1080/07907180802452770