Yes to Europe

Ireland last week voted overwhelmingly to join the European Common Market. The more than 4-to-l margin of approval in a national referendum was a considerable triumph for Prime Minister Jack Lynch, who had campaigned aggressively for a yes vote --and a defeat for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, which opposed entry. The vote ensures that Ireland will become a member of the enlarged European Economic Community next Jan. 1, and will not, as Lynch had warned, face a future "lost in the mists of a Celtic twilight."

The voters put economic reality before nationalist rhetoric. In a highly emotional antiMarket campaign, Sinn Fein (Gaelic for "We Ourselves") distributed almost 1,000,000 pamphlets urging voters "once and for all to break the link with England by voting no to England's interests." One antiMarket billboard showed an ugly, cigar-chomping German industrialist saying "We need your little daughter in the Ruhr," a reference to the prospect that unemployed Irish workers might have to seek jobs on the Continent. Labor unions worried about "the oppressive open competition of European industrial society."

Despite those fears, the hard fact remained that Ireland outside the EEC would have to "plow the lonely furrow of the Atlantic," as one pro-Marketeer put it. Nearly two-thirds of Irish exports go to Britain, and they would face a prohibitive tariff wall if that country, as is now expected, joined the EEC. Irishmen stand to benefit from higher Continental prices for their beef and lamb, and from an influx of industries, mostly American, seeking a European base. More than 200 companies indicated that they would invest in Ireland if the referendum was favorable.

The large majority was a massive expression of public confidence in Lynch. The Prime Minister, who is no friend of the I.R.A., might now use his added political stature to clamp down on the organization, whose officers in Dublin direct the terror campaign in Northern Ireland. That could conceivably lead to closer cooperation between Dublin and London in seeking a long-range political solution to the troubles of Ulster.

As the first of three scheduled referendums in countries that have applied to join the Common Market, Ireland's vote last week may carry influence far beyond its borders. Norway will have a referendum in September. Its farmers and fishermen feel sufficiently threatened by Common Market competition that recent polls show a majority against membership--though the Norwegian Storting, or Parliament, will make the final decision. Denmark will hold a binding referendum in October; polls show 48% of the population favoring entry, only 28% opposed, and 24% undecided. The ringing yes from Ireland can only hearten pro-Market politicians in both countries.

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