ABSTRACT
Opening: leprechauns in the European Parliament On the 24 of June 2008 members of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group in the European Parliament (EP) held a protest in the chamber during the Parliament’s debate on the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty at a referendum held on 12 June. Wearing sweaters emblazoned with ‘Respect the Irish Vote’ and holdings signs with ‘Respect the Irish No’, some wore plastic Leprechaun costumes as they called on the Parliament and the European Union (EU) leadership writ large to scrap the Lisbon Treaty. Their rationale for ending the Lisbon Treaty was that the Irish people had voted No and so their democratic verdict needed to be respected. Moreover, they argued, had other member states held a referendum (Ireland was the only member state to do so) then the Treaty would have been decisively defeated (Farage 2009).
