Why does 'Non' mean No but 'Níl' means, vote again?

It was our first wedding anniversary on Saturday. Festivities began early with American-style pancakes, a brisk 90-minute walk along the coast road, into Dalkey, pick up some vino, back to the gaf, uncork around 4 with a terrific 2001 Darviot Perrin Bourgogne Vieilles Vignes from Grapevine. Into town to the Merrion Hotel for cocktails (site of our first date), on to the Mermaid Cafe for dinner (always amazing - the Swordfish Rolls and Red Snapper for me, the Guinea Fowl and duck breast for sicWife) with an excellent Sancerre, a stop at the Bailey for more gin, then onto the Sugar Club until late - which despite having a set list that could have been ripped from the playlist from a freshman party 15 years ago attracted a heavily female crowd of about 10 yrs younger than this child of the 80s. [Smiths and Depeche Mode into House of Pain into the Strokes into Franz Ferdinand? Mon dieu!]

All of which is a long way of explaining why, despite the best of intentions, there was no way we were going to make it Sunday to the Sinn Fein-sponsored event on the EU Constitution at the IFI this weekend. We barely made it to the couch.

We also felt less urgency to attend because we anticipated that the Constitution was going to go down hard yesterday in France, which made a conference on a dead document seem a bit redundant. Though we do regret not seeing how we'd feel finding ourselves in agreement with Sinn Fein activists on a major political issue for the first time in quite a long time indeed.

Gavin, up late, noted the reaction of Jacques Chirac:

France has democratically expressed itself. You have rejected the European constitution by a majority. It is your sovereign decision and I take note of it. Nevertheless, our ambitions and interests are profoundly linked to Europe.

Is it just us or does this sound a lot different from the reaction of Bertie Ahern after the (first) Nice referendum in June 2001, which was defeated by a 54/46 margin?

While some suggest that the voters of France will be treated with a contempt equal to that showered on the 2001 voters of Ireland - more than one headline-writer called them 'perverse' - and be forced to keep voting until they get it right, it seems unlikely.

We were pleased for our favourite Eurosceptic, England Expects, and his compatriots. Personally we're glad that Ireland and other states are going ahead with votes on the Constitution. It will provide a chance to start the necessary conversation about a European teleology. What is the end-state of the European project? At the moment, the illusion of constant progress has managed to conceal a multitude of sins, not least the erosion of democratic governance in Europe.

There is much that is good in Europe, and worth fighting for. But the dreaming bureaucrats have so lost touch with the people and their own principles that their arrogance now endangers the whole project.

Next stop Netherlands.