What a difference a recession makes. The Lisbon referendum at the second time of asking involved two campaigns, which was a change from the one conducted 15 months ago, when the only real campaign was run by the No side.

This time around, those wishing to affirm the treaty got their act together. Those opposed app­eared jaded and disjointed. However, the overriding issue in the vote was the recession. Fear of being cast out of the bosom of Europe had an impact. Fear of the unknown consequences exercised a great pull on wavering voters. It may be a cheap way to garner votes, but that's campaigns for you. In Lisbon 1, it was the No side which used fear to maximum effect.

The defining image of the Yes side in the 2008 campaign was the gathering of the three leaders of the main parties in Dundrum Town Centre to canvass within the retail cathedral. A week before the vote, Brian Cowen, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore came together to assure voters they were united.

A week previously, Cowen had made comments to the effect that Fine Gael wasn't doing its bit. The suggestion cheesed off politicians and activists in the other parties. Now they were meeting to show that all was sweetness and light between them. We are one. Trust us. Vote for this treaty thingamejig because we are telling you to.

A lesson was learned. This time around the party leaders were mere passengers in the bandwagon. Sensibly, they allowed others to grab the reins. At a time when the stock of politicians is low, and that of the government lower, it was the only way to go. There would be a mobilisation of forces which were untainted by politics.

The farmers were tied down early on. Then, in June, an organisation called Yes For Europe was launched. Pat Cox was the front man, but it included the likes of Robbie Keane, Seamus Heaney and The Edge. This wasn't no rock 'n' roll. Seamus Heaney is known the world over for digging with his pen to the core of the human condition. Keane plays football in England. As for The Edge, that man can make a guitar sing, but hardly in the key of EU.

Prior to their unmasking, none had expressed any knowledge or interest in the European project, but now they were mad anxious for Lisbon, going forward. The Yes side were in the groove, ditching policy arguments for perceptions, retaining celebrities to smile rather than politicians to explain.

Elsewhere, an outfit called We Belong was established. Fronted by former Fianna Fáil spindoctor Olivia Buckley, they sounded like an Up With People combo for the 21st century. We were spared any cheesy song-and-dance routine but instead subjected to shiny happy young people urging a Yes vote to save the world.

The serious ammunition was supplied by Cox and academic Brigid Laffan. Both proactively took on their opponents by land and on the airwaves, asking and giving no quarter.

Industry provided the campaign with the likes of Intel and Michael O'Leary. Intel threw €200,000 into the campaign pot. O'Leary threw himself into campaigning with all the vigour he usually applies to puts bums on Ryanair seats.

He donated €500,000 from Ryanair, hosted press conferences and flew the EU transport commissioner Antonio Tajani around the country in a publicity stunt. Tajani's role in campaigning on a sovereign referendum elicited no curiosity from the media.

O'Leary's contribution was telling. He was his usual exuberant self on the stump and he took on the role of bootboy, something the previous Yes campaign was lacking.

He took out advertisements labelling Joe Higgins, Mary Lou McDonald, Patricia McKenna and Declan Ganley as electoral "losers", despite never standing for election himself. Other ads declared that a good reason to vote Yes was to piss off Sinn Féin.

(Memo to the No side: Listen lads, have youse no imagination? Where were the posters declaring that O'Leary wanted to gamble the nation's future as he had gambled and lost millions for his company hedging on the price of fuel? It's pure nonsense, but then so were most of the posters.)

The talented Mr O'Leary will no doubt come calling for a payback in the months ahead. Poor Aer Lingus, they know not what Lisbon has done for them.

The No side was fighting an uphill battle from the word go. You only get one chance to ambush the establishment. Cóir was to the fore again, but this time around the group's capacity to spread terror was restricted.

The Martins, Micheál and archbishop Diarmuid, put the abortion issue to bed. Fear of the EU taking children from their homes to be conscripted to fight and die didn't catch hold. Even the posters disappointed. There was no repetition of the Three Monkeys. Some traction was achieved with the 'Minimum Wage €1.84?' poster, but in reality it was one deception too far.

Late on, the streets saw Cóir at its worst. A poster displaying an elderly woman and a foetus illustrat­ed how low they were prepared to go in attempting to strike fear about abortion and euthanasia. They knew the game was almost up.

The left kept beavering away. The election of Joe Higgins as MEP last June was a boost to their campaign and he traversed the country tirelessly for the cause. But the main platform of workers' rights didn't chime, as most of the trade unions were vocal in their support for a Yes.

Elsewhere, Ganley was not the man he was once perceived to be. Last time around, he brought charisma, an expensive campaign, posters decrying the loss of a commissioner, and a mantra of "we can get a better deal". He played a long game and stayed focused throughout. Despite the post-vote protestations of his co-campaigners, his contribution had raised the No side out of the electoral ghettoes of the hard left and religious fundamentalists.

That was oh-so long ago. For this campaign, the commissioner was in the bag and there would be no other deal if Lisbon fell.

The man himself had lost credibility in the interim. After defeat in the Euro elections, he said he was leaving the pitch. His return late in the day came through the pages of the Wall Street Journal, owned by europhobe Rupert Murdoch. It was a strange launching pad from which to wrap himself in the tricolour once more.

The stated premise for his re-entry was the untruths being perpetrated by the Yes side, which was a bit rich. And when he got down and dirty, O'Leary was on hand to match him insult for insult.

And yet… and yet. Despite the different campaigns, despite the forces brought to bear by the Yes side, the strong suspicion is that the recession was the defining influence on the outcome.

The past of Lisbon 1 is a different country. Hubris and the afterglow of a bubble economy are distant memories. The misplaced notion that Europe needs us more than we need them has been exposed as a fallacy. Fear, once more, was the key.