This article is from page 17 of the 2009-10-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
WHILE the eyes of Europe may have been on Dublin Castle and the Lisbon count this weekend, the out- come failed to excite even the small- est number of people in the Banner Sree
Just four months but thousands of onlookers away from the local and European elections, the Lisbon Count – mark two – was even more of a damp squib than Lisbon mark one.
Even the local politicians, who had such a vested interest in the ballot boxes last June, failed to even raise a
passing interest on Saturday last.
A handful of county councillors and approximately two town coun- cillors arrived early in the morning, but left early with the no campaign- ers once the outcome was obvious.
Just one county councillor saw the result out to the bitter end with Clare’s TDs, who all showed up for the occasion.
From the time the boxes were opened, it was clear that the referen- dum would be carried in Clare with a three-to-one ratio in favour of the treaty in rural areas, and a 60:40 split in favour in urban areas.
By lunchtime, all the votes had been counted, with just a dozen peo- ple left in the centre with the media and those counting.
While all waited for Returning Of- ficer Patrick Wallace to get the green light from Dublin to announce the result, the speculation on the margin of success for the Yes side began.
Deputy Carey had left proceedings to attend his daughter’s christening, but the remaining three TDs were happy to guess the outcome.
Junior Minister Tony Killeen (FF) thought that the treaty would be ac- cepted in Clare by 69 per cent of the
voters, Deputy Pat Breen (FG) went with 70 per cent, while Deputy Tim- my Dooley (FF) finally settled for 72 per cent, having wavered between it and 71 per cent.
Shortly after 2pm, Mr Wallace an- nounced the verdict from the Clare voters. It was carried 72.3 per cent to 27.7.