The Irish people are being asked to make the most important decision they are ever likely to make for the future of our country and our people when they vote in the forthcoming referendum on the Treaty of Nice.
It is clear from polls that a large proportion of those entitled to vote do not understand the significance of what is proposed. One may be forgiven for suspecting that a deliberate decision was made to rush through this referendum before a proper nation-wide debate could take place on the real issues involved. What is proposed in the Treaty of Nice and the steps to be taken in its aftermath is the establishment of a united states of Europe, a huge, unwieldy empire not far removed from the political model of the US or the former USSR.
We have been coaxed along this path initially by the invitation to join the European Economic Community, which was potentially very beneficial for us as a free trade area for Western Europe.
But after the initial step was taken the whole character of our association with the member-states of the EU was transformed by the Maastricht Treaty and the Amsterdam Treaty.
We have been hustled into a political as well as an economic alliance, while a large proportion of the people of Ireland were - in my opinion - not really aware of the significance of the course they were being asked to follow.
Now the full magnitude of the programme is revealed by the details of the Treaty of Nice and the explanatory literature which has been made available.
We are being asked to submerge our national identity in an EU of 27 or 28 member-states with a total population in excess of 300 million. If we accept the treaty we are accepting that for the future Ireland will have seven votes out of 345 when decisions are to be taken by a weighted majority at council level.
In the European Parliament Ireland is to be allotted 12 seats out of 732.
And because of the quite unwieldy and unmanageable size of the proposed EU, we are being called upon to accept that at times in the future the European Commission will function with no Irish member present at its deliberations.
In reality, we will become back-room boys, with all important decisions being made by the small group of influential member-states with the largest populations. Ireland has fought and suffered for upwards of a thousand years to break free from foreign domination, and in the battle to preserve our traditions, culture and religious beliefs.
A short half century after this battle had been fought and won we embarked on a process which is leading us to surrender that hard-won independence in favour of becoming an insignificant and unimportant part of a federal Europe.
Now we are being asked to hand over control of our national destiny to a huge conglomerate of member-states whose ethos, culture and traditions are completely foreign and whose economic interests are calculated to make a huge impact on the financial stability we have achieved after many years of suffering and sacrifice.
One of the fundamental features of the European Community framework is a guarantee to all citizens of all member-states of a right of establishment elsewhere in the EU if they wish to move from one member-state to another.
With the addition of hundreds of millions of new citizens of Europe to the EU, Ireland will inherit an obligation to open her doors to the entire population of Eastern Europe.
Of course we should be willing to help those less fortunate than ourselves, but do we vote for a scenario where all control over such movement of population is taken out of our hands for the future?
The massive influx of illegal immigrants which we have already experienced, and are struggling to control, gives an indication of the problems that lie ahead in the future if we vote Yes to the Nice Treaty.
Let us return again to the Declaration in Article 1 of the Constitution: "The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural in accordance with its own genius and traditions."
We have seen a dramatic development in the UK - the announcement of a new political party called the Independence Party made up of people who are rebelling against being hustled against their will into a united states of Europe and who wish to opt again for full independence, just as the people of Norway and Switzerland have done at all times since the establishment of the EU.
Surely this is a lesson which we should take to heart?
Roderick J. O'Hanlon is a former High Court judge, former Professor of Criminal and Constitutional Law, UCD, and former President of the Law Reform Commission.