On 18 June last - a forthnight after the Danish "No" vote the people of Ireland voted 69.1% in favour of ratification - a margin of more than two to one, higher than predicted by opinion polls in the previous weeks, and almost identical to the vote on ratification of the Single European Act.

The campaign has some interesting lessons for federalists. Below we have chosen a few Euro-speak terms in order to identify how they related to the Irish experience.

Cohesion and convergence. Maastricht was shown not to be a step to Economic Union. The lack of tangible commitment in the Treaty to cohesion is therefore seen as a major problem. The Irish economy will have to achieve an annual growth rate 1.25% higher than the developed community countries for 20 years in order to provide an average income level for its citizens of 90% of the Community average. There is a complete absence of fiscal federalism in current proposals and federalists must give more consideration to this issue from now on.

Citizenship. The campaign highlighted the absence of a sense of European citizenship amongst the electorate. For example appeals to vote yes to put the Treaty back on the rails after the Danish debacle cut no ice whatsoever. Interestingly the campaign placed almost no emphasis on the potential for solving the northern problem through European integration. This issue was only raised in the border counties. All the pro Treaty parties with exception of the Liberals had difficulty in persuading the members to campaign and to explain the issue.

Subsidiarity. It is a word now entering the Irish political vocabulary for the first time. Ireland is the EC's most centralised state. European integration is providing the greatest ever challenge to the administrative status quo. The North West region is debating whether it should seek individual recognition from the Community as a region at NUTS 2 level. The proposed Committee of the regions is attracting considerable interest throughout the country.

In European terms the trickle over from UK media of perceptions of subsidiarity and centralisation has not led to a similar hostile attitude here.

Democratic deficit. The accountability of both the Commission and the ESCB were challenged in the campaign. Though the fact that the Irish Central Bank has more autonomy than is envisaged for the European Bank was not highlighted greatly.

More interestingly the role of the Council of Ministers has been brought into very sharp relief by the fiasco of the now famous abortion protocol.

The question has been asked time and time again in Ireland as to how and why the abortion protocol was inserted. It is clear that the major party in the coalition government were put under discreet but accurate pressure by a conservative catholic lobby. The question has to be asked also as to why the other member states accepted the protocol and whether they would have done so if they realised that it could have the effect of limiting the rights of travel and information available to Irish women. At a minimum it must be accepted that the draft Treaty was not being subjected to adequate democratic scrutiny.

As Ireland is now facing another referendum on the abortion issue it can be expected that this issue will run and run and possibly will throw up more lessons relating to subsidiarity, European citizenship, basic rights, freedom to provide services etc.

Sovereignty. The three pillar nature of the European Union really served to confuse this issue in Ireland. Even Government Ministers were in difficulty trying to distinguish the nature of decision making which would operate for security co-operation. The most practical debate was on the allegation that voting yes would automatically lead to conscription "by Europe" of Irish youth in the future to serve in a European army. This particular rumour took such a hold the Prime Minister had to specifically refute it on his eve of poll address to the nation. Mind you, given that version of the Treaty available to the citizens (at 10 Ecus) did not consolidate the retained provisions of the Treaty of Rome and did not even have an index, it is not surprising that misunderstandings as to what we were actually invited to vote on arose.

Conclusion. The Danish decision on June 2 served to highten the debate in Ireland. There was doubt as to whether the Treaty would be implemented or whether the Irish referendum might be seen as simply the most expensive opinion poll in history. Even if this proves to be the case the learning process in Ireland has been most positive. The establishment has been reminded that the people will not just endorse any text and that the era of the Euro-bully must be dying. It is reasonable to expect that in the future there will be more comprehensive debate on European issues. The last time the Parliament had a full debate on Europe was before the Berlin Wall came down !