REMEMBER THE SCENE? Davy Spillane's uilleann pipes provide the soundtrack as Mel Gibson's character William Wallace asks his humble army "Are you ready to fight?"

King Edward I's English cavalry are assembled on their horses wearing chainmail outfits and metal helmets. They are holding shields and swords as they wait at one end of the battleground in Stirling.

On the other side, Gibson, with his hair blowing in the wind and his face painted blue and white, canters up and down the front of his army's frontline on his horse.

His tawdry army is apprehensive about going into battle with the English when Gibson delivers the epic line that incites their heroic bravery, "They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!"

Braveheart is a 13th-century story about the commoner, William Wallace, who united the Scots in their battle to overthrow English rule.

In one of the most bizarre analogies in modern Irish politics, Libertas leader Declan Ganley has likened himself to Wallace in recent days. Ganley, assuming the role of the underdog, has come forth to unite the 'No' camp and finally overthrow the Lisbon Treaty.

Speaking in the Castlebar count centre after he failed to win a European seat in June, Ganley said: "I will not be involved in the second Lisbon campaign. I've said that upfront."

But Ganley made a U-turn a week ago when he announced at a press conference in Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel that he was returning to campaign for a 'No' vote in the second Lisbon referendum on 2 October.

"It's anybody's right and privilege to change their mind," he said, and with that Ganley is back. The charismatic 42-year-old Irish-born entrepreneur has returned to try and win a second referendum for the 'No' camp.

Last weekend's Red C/Sunday Business Post opinion poll found that 62% of those polled intend to vote 'Yes' while just 23% intend to vote 'No'. So Ganley has an uphill battle. And the question remains: can this self-styled modern-day William Wallace figure rally the 'No' faction to defeat the might of the 'Yes' side?

In an interview with the London Times newspaper last Thursday, Ganley alluded to the scale of the battle ahead and gave reasons for his eleventh hour return.

"This is an asymmetric fight. We are skint. The thing about Brussels and their yes men is that they have vast and overwhelming forces and they just keep revisiting our line.

"We can't fight a conventional ground war against these people because we will lose. So this was not by accident to wait to the day we did.

"It's like that scene in Braveheart with the lads with the sharpened staves and the English heavy cavalry charging. And I was basically saying, 'wait, wait, wait' and then at the last minute you pull up the big 12-foot-long sharpened staves and you impale the bastards on their own argument."

After making these comments, Ganley lets out a "rich guffaw and puffs on his cigar". The interview sparked further tension between Ganley and Fianna Fáil, which believes it was Ganley who won the referendum for the 'No' side the last time .

Timmy Dooley, vice-chair of the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs, issued a scathing statement on Thursday afternoon.

At the beginning of the Times interview the reporter described how Ganley lit a cigar in his office at the back of his mansion in Galway and said: "You don't mind if I break an EU regulation do you?"

Dooley's statement pointed out that "Declan Ganley has shown that he doesn't know even the basics of Irish law and is now reduced to abuse of his opponents describing them as 'bastards'.

"…Of course there is no EU regulation banning smoking in the workplace – it's an Irish law enacted by our Oireachtas. This is from the man who has toured the country claiming to be the protector of our law and to have an unequaled knowledge of EU law."

'Politics of abuse'

Dooley criticised Ganley's use of the term "bastards" to describe his opponents and the Clare TD said: "The more people see of Declan Ganley the clearer it is that he is offering nothing but the politics of abuse and manipulation. Hopefully the latest of his interviews with the anti-press will bring home the message even more."

Whether Ganley offers nothing but the politics of "abuse and manipulation" is a matter of opinion, but he certainly knows how to get up the noses of the 'Yes' side. This can only serve to add bite to an otherwise bland referendum that has failed to capture the public imagination.

So seven days after Ganley publicly exercised his right and privilege to change his mind, how has he affected the campaign?

His return to the Lisbon campaign actually began nine days ago when he gave two newspaper interviews to journalists from the Wall Street Journal and the Irish Daily Mail.

On Monday he did wall-to-wall national media interviews that included a heated debate with Professor Brigid Laffan of the pro-Lisbon Ireland for Europe group on Today with Pat Kenny.

Recognising the importance of the conservative rural vote to his campaign, Ganley spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday doing interviews on local radio stations.

Unlike the 24/7 dedication to the June elections, Ganley was out of the country on Wednesday and Thursday attending to business commitments.

A Libertas source said: "During the European elections Declan had taken a step back from his business for the campaign. This time around he will be equally as prominent but he is still looking after his interests and he will not be engaged in full-time campaigning."

In fairness to Ganley, there was little point in going on the airwaves to sell his message on Thursday as 'Nama Day' had gripped the nation and relegated Lisbon from the news agenda for at least 24 hours.

It is understood he will not be touring around the country on a campaign bus in the same way he approached the first referendum campaign. Instead, Libertas will conduct "an on-the-ground canvass which will be driven by volunteers and a national campaign driven by media appearances. Declan intends to bring balance to the media debate."

Sources close to Ganley claim Libertas is going to spend "between €50,000 and €200,000" on a three-week campaign.

The organisation's poster and billboard campaign is targeting Taoiseach Brian Cowen with a photo of Cowen accompanied by the slogan: "The only job Lisbon saves is his. Vote 'No'."

A Libertas source said: "We are going to focus on the jobs argument and relate it as much as possible to Brian Cowen. If people can wake up and see that jobs is not the issue and Lisbon is not about jobs there will be a significant swing back towards us.

"It's a question of whether people vote out of fear or anger. The 'Yes' side would like us to vote out of fear for our economic future. Our message is clear that this has nothing to do with the future of the economy."

His comments were echoed by Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal editorial on Thursday morning, which claimed the Yes side is so desperate that it has resorted to "patent absurdities" and accused it of peddling "phantom terrors" to scare people into voting 'Yes'.

Libertas immediately endorsed the article and said it proved its contention that Cowen's job will be the only job to be saved. The economy and Ganley's claims that the treaty is "profoundly undemocratic" are set to spearhead the Libertas arguments.

Lucinda Creighton, Fine Gael's spokeswoman on European Affairs, is not surprised to see Ganley return but believes he will not have the same impact he had during Lisbon I.

"I expected him to re-enter the fray. It would have been more surprising had he stayed away.

"I think the debate has moved on since the referendum 15 months ago. I believe Declan Ganley will have minimal impact. Trite slogans will not win this campaign – there is too much at stake here.

"I am utterly confident we can win, without being complacent. We are working very hard and the feedback is very positive. People see that our future can be secured by a 'Yes' vote."

Labour's Pat Rabbitte was surprised by Ganley's return and believes Ganley will help an ailing 'No' side as it has "a particularly forlorn rag-bag campaign" and Ganley may somewhat energise it.

"The 'No' advocates have really been exposed with their posters about a €1.84 minimum wage.

"That argument has been put to bed and the Cóir posters are so untrue that they need somebody in a pin-striped suit that sounds plausible.

"But he is a mystery man. I can understand the UKIP and Euroskeptic positions but I can't understand a man who says he is pro-Europe who comes up with some of the arguments that he comes up with.

"I think that people are minded to scrutinise more carefully on this occasion what he is actually saying and I think that will go against him. Some of his broad brush statements simply don't bear scrutiny."

Credible figurehead

Elsewhere, PR guru Terry Prone believes that Ganley's eleventh hour return was always going to happen and his timing makes him "more newsy. Just witness the international attention."

Prone believes that Ganley's impact is dependent on the media and politicians. She claims that the media flatter themselves that they ask Ganley the tough questions "but he always gets what he wants out of any interview".

Prone sees Ganley as more of a "driven demagogue" than a credible figurehead for the 'No' side and said: "If Brian Cowen responds to the effrontery of an unelected and probably unelectable self-creation, he's more of a fool that I believe him to be."

In an impassioned plea, Ganley told the Wall Street Journal: "The Irish have never been afraid throughout history of asking tough questions and standing up for freedom and what was right against much, much, bigger opponents. In fact, we seem to revel in it.

"…We're almost literally being held hostage, with a gun pointed to our head, and being told, if you don't sign this thing, unspecified bad things will happen."

Ganley has a siege mentality. It's the weak and "skint" 'No' side versus the powerful cavalry of the 'Yes' side. He admits that they cannot fight a "conventional ground war against these people because we will lose".

Back to Prone. She claimed: "If the 'No' side turn it around, it will be a triumph of spend over substance, of cleverality over reality, of insular misinformation over positive possibility."

It remains to be seen if Ganley can play the William Wallace role in the next fortnight.