With things finally settling down after the wedding and honeymoon, I said I’d post about the wedding day. Myself and Louise thoroughly enjoyed our day.

It started out early in the day. My family were in our house in Castleconnell, and Louise was in her mother’s home in Caherdavin. Lou’s cousin, Daren Kirwan, was on hand in Caherdavin to take photos of the preparations! My sister, Catherine, had her camera in Castleconnell for some early photos. As expected, myself, my family and groomsmen got to the church first, and met some of the guests arriving.

My uncle PJ Madden celebrated the ceremony for us. He made the ceremony fun and enjoyable, while maintaining the serenity of the occasion within the church. We were delighted to hear how much everyone present enjoyed the ceremony, and are very thankful to PJ for doing such a fantastic job. It made the day very special for both myself and Louise.

After the ceremony, and a few photos in the church, the wedding party made our way out to Bunratty Folk Park for some photos. Again, Louise’s cousin Daren came with us and took some lovely photos.

It was then back to The Radisson Hotel in Limerick for the meal and the afters. The hotel staff were fantastic throughout the day and everything ran perfectly. I also have to mention “Hotshots”, the band. They were excellent, and kept the dance floor full for their entire set. They even let Mikey play drums for a few songs!

After the band and the DJ, the guitar came out and the sing-song got started. We were asked to move out of the reception room into the hotel lobby at about 5:30am, but this only re-invigorated those of us still going and we kept going for another 2 hours out there, with a piano added into the musical mix!

What really made our day was to have our families and friends with us to celebrate the wedding and enjoy the day with us. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came and I hope you all enjoyed the day as much as we did.

We have a large amount of honeymoon photos, but I haven’t uploaded any yet. They’ll make their way online soon enough, or at least some of them will, and I’ll link them here when they do.

Last Thursday, June 12th 2008, the Irish people voted on the Lisbon Treaty. The outcome was 46.6% in favour of ratification, and 53.4% against. What this means for Ireland and the EU is yet to be seen.

I believe the primary reason behind the “No” vote victory is down to the complete lack of transparency in the treaty. It’s 287 pages of legal babble! Combine this with the “Yes” camps ineffectiveness in explaining the issues clearly and concisely, and the majority voted to maintain the status quo.

I voted no because, despite spending time trying to completely understand the issues, I could not get a complete picture of what the ratification of this treaty would mean for me, for Ireland and for Europe. The “Yes” camp spouted crap about “Good for Ireland; Good for Europe” while the “No” camp threw out paranoid arguments about losing our neutrality and legalising abortion. Neither focussed on the treaty and explained its benefits or drawbacks.

My previous post on this topic focussed on the economic consequences of giving the EU control over our taxation. On reading further on the treaty, taxation is still to require unanimous agreement for changes, meaning Ireland should be able veto any attempt at altering our tax rates.

Whether or not my no vote was correct based on the contents of the treaty is still debatable. However, I believe it was correct as a message to our government (who all bar one party supported a “Yes” vote) and to Brussels that, if you want to pass legislation to govern people, then the people should be able to understand that legislation. Brussels legalese should be scrapped and simpler language should be used instead.