Irish voters scuttle (for now) the advance of the EU.

The European Union’s politicians and institutionalized bureaucracy were stunned and affronted at the audacity of the Irish people, who last week unexpectedly bucked their own political establishment by voting against the EU reform treaty.

The deal, which must be approved by all 27 EU members to take effect, was touted as a “streamlining” of the Euro Superstate, with its establishment of a full-scale EU presidency and a powerful foreign ministership. So far, the document has been approved by 18 member nations, including Britain. All of Ireland’s major political parties campaigned hard for a “yes” result in the referendum.

Opposing the measure was the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, fearing the loss of Irish military neutrality. (The Irish Free State was neutral in World War II and Britain’s plans for Irish conscription during WW I led to a general strike.) Some Irish women may have rejected the deal out of fear they’d be drafted into a pan-Euro army.

Defense issues were only part of the reason for rejection, however. An impressive multimedia campaign opposing the pact was orchestrated by technology entrepreneur Declan Ganley. It emphasized the dictatorial powers the deal would give the Brussels bureaucracy, the threat to the low business taxation in Ireland that attracts investment, the supremacy of Euro law over Irish law, and a provision that lets changes be made without member-country approval.

Ganley also got personal with pro-treaty politicians, both within and without Ireland, as in his much-publicized purchase of one-way plane tickets to Brussels for the Irish prime minister and the leaders of the two main opposition parties.