At stake is a voluntary agreement negotiated between 27 democratically elected governments to improve the efficient running of an expanded EU.

Should the good folk of Ireland choose to reject the Lisbon treaty, the institution would face, potentially, a crisis. Not a crisis that will see the entire EU edifice crumble, but a crisis nevertheless for the legitimacy of its governing institutions.

The treaty was born from nearly a decade of wrangling, compromise, negotiation and diplomacy across an entire continent.

Renegotiation is not a sensible option, and it is hard to see what strategy would remain post a referendum-defeat.

Something would surely arise from the ashes, but the implications would be profound.

Rejection would place the Irish in a unique position — a nation transformed from grateful recipient to begrudger in the blink of an eye.

Certainly, there are many EU concepts that are fuzzy and imperfect — democracy, national sovereignty and accountability chief among them.

However, Ireland's voters should resist the temptation to poke big Europe in the eye today. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is not the way forward.