Puritan Ireland's dead and gone. The first casualty of this Nice referendum campaign is the Fine Gael party's reputation as the custodian of traditional Catholic conservative values and attitudes.
With one fell swoop, the cheeky youth branch of the party has demolished all those years of piety and - some would say - craw-thumping. Young Fine Gael yesterday unveiled its poster for the Yes campaign in colleges and universities.
It depicts a semi-naked young couple locked in passionate embrace. Whether their passion was aroused from reading the grey text of the Nice Treaty is not entirely clear but the accompanying slogan declares: "It's Better 2 B Inside: Vote Yes to Europe, Vote Yes to Nice".
The lovers were said to be members of Young Fine Gael. The organisation's president, Mr Gerry O'Connell, said he imagined someone like the late James Dillon would not be best pleased, but the former leader never had to fight two Nice referendums.
"It's possible to sell beer, airline tickets, cars, houses, everything, using posters with a sexual flavour," he said.
Some No campaigners wanted to go back to "a 1940s Ireland", listening to the wireless after a day on the farm, he added.
However, Mr Justin Barrett, criticised for his No to Nice posters of a man with a gun to his head, was not amused: "The senior section of the party ought to bring them to one side and give them a good talking to.
"The Nice Treaty is a serious issue and they are reducing it to the level of a joke."