On Monday night more than 15,000 activists in Ireland's ruling Fianna Fáil party received a voicemail from their leader Brian Cowen exhorting them to ensure a huge turnout in Thursday's referendum on the Lisbon reform treaty.

The prime minister's call to arms marked a new intensification of the referendum campaign. Fianna Fáil's formidable political machine had already been spurred into action by a poll late last week suggesting the referendum could be lost.