Due to a long standing law, such matters must go to a democratic referendum in Ireland, and these are a people who will not be taken as fools.

This has been as much an Irish statement against being bullied as it is against the Lisbon “constitution” Treaty itself.

Ireland has generally fared well from EU hand outs in the past, and the faceless Brussels mafia will now be spitting feathers for having it's nose being put so far out of shape.

Quite where this leaves the manifesto liar Brown and his arrogant undemocratic UK Government remain to be seen, but no doubt he will dig himself further into the mire and hopefully be walking with even more of sag should Stuart Wheeler win his court case and force the government to hold a referendum in the UK

No doubt Kommander Merkel will be barking out the orders tonight, but we believe the Irish are made of sterner stuff than the bend over backwards Brown and his generous expense claiming fiends.

To quote from Todays News reports .......

Ireland has rejected the EU reform treaty, politicians said based on a wave of returns from the referendum on the issue.

Tallies of votes produced nationally by election observers, as well as early official returns, all showed the "no" camp ahead in the vast majority of Ireland's 43 electoral constituencies. Pro-treaty voters were clearly ahead in only a few.

Electoral officials expected to confirm the result later and send shock waves throughout the EU.

The Euro fell to a one-month low on the news.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he expected all other 26 EU members to ratify the Lisbon Treaty through their national parliaments by the end of this year.

This would leave Ireland - the only member to put the mammoth, often-unreadable document to a national vote - diplomatically isolated but nonetheless wielding the power to prevent the treaty from becoming law and forcing a period of renewed negotiations.

"Obviously it's disappointing. It's quite clear there's a very substantial 'no' vote," said Mr Ahern, who noted that 58% of voters rejected the treaty in his home district.

"If we're left as the only country that has not ratified the treaty, it will obviously raise questions.

We're in uncharted waters," he said.

The outcome appears likely to throw the EU into renewed diplomatic turmoil and fuel appeals across the continent for more democratic accountability.

The Lisbon Treaty was painstakingly negotiated following the failure of the EU's proposed constitution, which French and Dutch voters rejected in 2005. Both documents sought to reshape EU powers and institutions in line with its rapid growth in size and population since 2004.