New national political party launched in Co Longford
Ireland's newest party gathered for its first public meeting this week in Longford, with a clear aim of opposing the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in October.
Irish People's Party, led by former Coir members Brian O'Connor and Richard Greene, outlined their plans to the assembled group of people in the Longford Arms Hotel.
Mr Greene opened the meeting by declaring that the new party, which requires 300 members to become an official party, would be open to all members of society. He said they were opposed to the Lisbon Treaty and Pro-Life.
Mr O'Connor added that by holding a second referendum, "The government are not representing the view of the people."
He said that the day after the vote, the government were looking for ways to get around the 'no' vote.
Mr O'Connor added that with less than one percent of the votes, Ireland had very little say in what went on in Europe, and yet Europe had a lot of say in what went on in Ireland – "The budget this year had to be approved by Europe," said Mr O'Connor.
He said that it was getting to the stage where Ireland was becoming part of the United States of Europe, with a flag, parliament and treaty that effectively was the constitution.
Mr O'Connor said that the Minister for European Affairs told Longford people before the first referendum that there would not be a second referendum if Lisbon was defeated.
He said the people would not be voting on the legal guarantees, but on the exact same treaty that they rejected in the first referendum.
"We're not just here to tell people to vote 'no', we're trying to people the truth," he said.
"There is no need to go back to the people. If we voted 'yes' in the first referendum, we wouldn't be going back a second time.
"The people voted 'no' in the first referendum and it's up to the government to represent that view."
Questions were raised among the attendance of 30-odd about how the Irish People's Party would combat against the major parties of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
Mr O'Connor said that as members of Coir, they successfully won the campaign the last time when no-one gave them a chance. He said the party will draw up an information campaign with leaflets, and as well as canvassing people.
He said the Nice Treaty was campaigned as being a vote for jobs, which he said set the groundwork for companies moving to Eastern Europe.
The other main strand of the Irish Peoples Party's campaign is the opposition to supporting the banks at the expense of the Irish public.
The Irish People's Party will hold a second meeting in Longford in two weeks' time, and have plans to hold further meetings in Meath and Dublin.
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Weather for Longford, Ireland
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
