Around 150 people attended the public meeting held in Tullamore, Co Offaly on Wednesday night as part of the National Forum on Europe's series of meetings.
Some speakers complained that decisions were being made by "faceless" people in Brussels, and Ireland then had to cope with the consequences.
One example of this was given by Mr Seamus Boland, of Irish Rural Link, who said a directive was passed in the early 1990s on bogs and turf-cutting and nothing was known of it until the time came to implement it, and then it was too late. The directive had been made without any consultation, he complained.
"The reason why this referendum failed was because the whole EU project has distanced itself a great deal from people on the ground," he said.
Another speaker, Mr Brian Stanley, of Sinn Féin, objected to a re-run of the Nice referendum. "I find it totally unacceptable. It has been rejected, that's it, and it should not be put back to the people in its present form," he said.
Mr Darren Hooper asked: "Do we keep having National Forums on Europe until we say Yes?"
Ms Maureen Ahern said she was "an ordinary country mum" who wanted to know why the Government felt it necessary to apologise in Europe for the way Irish people voted.
There was criticism of Irish MEPs for their failure, as Mr Noel Gorman from Edenderry saw it, to protect family values. He blamed "our representatives in Europe for bowing to the pressures of Europe to erode our family values here. The one in particular that comes to mind is how quickly after David Norris took a legal case to the European Court, how quickly the Government here decriminalised homosexuality without any debate in the Dáil, if I remember correctly, which is very offensive to Catholics in this country."
A number of speakers, however, presented themselves as pro-European and spoke in favour of Nice.
These included some Fianna Fáil supporters, the former MEP Mr Alan Gillis and the CEO of the Midland Health Board, Mr Denis Doherty, who spoke in a personal capacity. Mr Gillis said Ireland's membership of the EU had been totally positive. "Please remember we have not lost any of the things we value and we have gained an awful lot in other ways. Nice is absolutely essential," he said.
But he raised the ire of another speaker when he said the EU had kept Europe a peaceful place.
Mr Jim O'Brien, who declared himself an ordinary citizen, said this was disingenuous. "It's kind of a veiled threat . . . that we would make mush of each other without the EU, and I resent that," he said. Mr Doherty said joining the EU had benefited a number of countries, not least their health status. He said an enlarged EU would create more markets and represented an opportunity rather than a threat.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, wound up the debate by staunchly defending the EU and its plans for enlargement through the ratification of Nice.
The next of the National Forum on Europe's series of public meetings takes place in City Hall, Limerick, at 8pm tonight.