The Guardian writes

Ireland’s Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has launched a blistering attack on Irish opponents of the EU Lisbon Treaty, accusing them of manufacturing fear in the referendum campaign. The poet said that if Ireland votes “no” again, the Republic and its people “will have lost ourselves in the modern world”.

In an exclusive interview with the Observer on his views on Europe and the referendum on 2 October, Heaney said the loss for Ireland from a “no” vote was “inestimable”. He said: “I was in Italy when the first referendum came in, and I was distressed for Ireland in Europe because of the kind of refusal of commitment after decades of benefit. It is inestimable, the loss of influence, status and trust that occurred with a ‘no’ vote: it is palpable and real.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.