In Roundstone, you’ll only find posters calling for a ‘yes’ in the second Irish referendum about the Lisbon Treaty. The first time, in June 2008, Irish voters rejected the treaty which aims to streamline EU decision-making, causing constitutional deadlock among the 27-nation bloc. But times have changed and Roundstone,  the scenic fishing town on the Atlantic coast, now faces the twin threats of economic crisis and a declining population. “We can’t say no.”

Majella Burke plays the traditional Irish drum, the bodhran, at the back of Mary King’s pub in Roundstone. The bodhran is the first thing many people associate with the scenic Connemara town, which has been exporting them for well over thirty years.

“The bodhran’s been brilliant for Roundstone”, says Majella. But lately the bodhran business – and the town – have been left reeling by the crisis.

Limited range
“It’s been more quiet than usual”, confirms local artist and gallery owner Yvonne King. Yvonne came back during the economic boom after living in the US. Her gallery is only open during the summer season.

“If we had more of a local population we could exist all the year round, but I’m very dependent on tourism.”

Outside the season it gets so quiet in Roundstone, mapmaker and local celebrity Tim Robinson once wrote, that even the range of biscuits in the shops is limited. “One of the shopkeepers had rather I hadn’t said that,” chuckles Robinson. “He pointed to a vast range of biscuits; that they all tasted alike was not the question.”

Unfortunate developments
Tim Robinson settled in Roundstone with his company, Folding Landscapes, while making an intricate, hand drawn map of Connemara. He was attracted by the scenery, and by the fact that the town hadn’t been ruined yet by modern development.

“With some unfortunate exceptions,” he adds, referring to Cúilin, a block of luxury holiday homes in the hills above the town. When the Irish building boom collapsed last year, work on Cúilin was abandoned. So now it’s a ghost town. But at least there’s no further damage.

Reality check
“Sometimes it takes a disaster to bring something good,” muses Richard, Duke de Stacpoole – a title he says comes in handy mainly to impress tourists. De Stacpoole is the driving force behind the roundstone.ie website, which first staked the town’s claim to being the ‘most picturesque’ in Ireland.

He says the crisis is a “reality check” that could force shops and hotels to stay open all year round. Which would help to bring back a sense of community.

Having fun
Meanwhile there are strains of opera coming from one of the shops that haven’t closed yet: ‘The Matchmaker’ vintage clothes. “It’s named after an Irish film I haven’t seen,” explains owner David Michael Bruno, who came to Ireland from Florida.

“When I came here with my evening gowns, they said ‘how dare you sell used clothes’? But this is the best year I’ve had. People come in now who wouldn’t normally come in. And they have fun!”

Lisbon Treaty
If the people of Roundstone are rising to the challenge – buoyed by it even - does that also mean they’re more willing now than last time to say ‘yes’ to Lisbon? “We can’t afford to say no,” says Richard De Stacpoole. Yvonne King agrees. “We’re an island nation on the edge of Europe. People are scared they’ll fall off.”

But even if the posters in town all call for a ‘yes’, Christina Lowry - who runs Woods’ grocery shop with her husband Seamus – says the crisis changes nothing. Rules from Brussels, she says, meant they had to close down their abattoir because it was too close to the house. “I voted last year, and I voted no.”

Referendum day
For the rest of the town, though, the twin threats of tourists staying away and not enough people to keep the shops open leave room for just one conclusion.

On Friday, Roundstone votes yes.