On Wed. May 5th. the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin was the guest speaker at the Irish AEJ’s may lunch. As the occasion took place in the same week as World Press Freedom Day and Europe Day, the Minister focussed on ‘communicating Europe’, from a Government and civil society point of view but also looking at the role journalists can play in illuminating and deepening the discussion on Europe in Ireland.
More specifically he spoke about the lessons to be learned from Ireland’s experience with the Lisbon Treaty and the two referenda held here. He talked about the process that led to the second referendum, understanding the reasons for the ‘no’ vote in the first referendum and the wider debate about Ireland and the EU that took place in advance of the second – which he felt was a model of its kind!