As a message from the “plain people of Ireland” to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, it could not have been clearer.

But “Kermit”, the man in the neon green frog suit, the farmers, hardline Irish republicans, anti-motorway campaigners, fishermen, the Catholic Right and even ‘Victims of Irish Solicitors’, were kept well away from the French presidential cavalcade as it rolled to Government Buildings for a ‘clear the air’ meeting with the Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

“Hop it Sarko! Le peuple a dit non!” was the frogman’s message, accompanied with a a photograph of France’s First Lady in a bikini with the question “Ou est Carla?”

“It’s just a bit of fun, to make the point to Sarkozy that he can’t tell the Irish people what to do,” said the man inside the frog suit – who identified himself only as Kermit.

“We voted No and that should be respected,” he added, before hopping off to wave his placard in front of the lenses of French photographers.

The largest element of the protest was the Irish Farmers Association – which recommended a Yes in Ireland’s May referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but only after extracting a pledge from the government that it would veto any move by Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, to liberalise trade tariffs in the World Trade Organisation talks in Geneva later this week.

Mr Mandelson is a hate figure for Irish farmers, who held aloft placards berating the former New Labour minister for “selling them out”. One farmer even replaced his face on his poster with the severed head of a pig.

It fell to Padraig Walshe, the IFA president, to explain that his protest was in fact in support of Mr Sarkozy. “Sarkozy is on record as saying he’s not prepared to sell out French food security," he said.

“If Mandelson succeeds, a million Irish suckler cows will have to be slaughtered and 100,000 jobs will be lost. We are here to show our support for Sarkozy and to tell the Taoiseach that rural people will never vote yes to Europe again in the future if the WTO talks go through.”

Next to the IFA’s tractors, parked in Merrion Square in deepest Georgian Dublin, was “The Sign of the Times Bible Prophecy” which claimed a diabolical role for the Lisbon Treaty.

“The world stage is almost ready for one rule for the whole world. He will be twice as evil as Hitler.” This message was conveyed to the strains of a recording of Edith Piaf singing “Non, je ne regretted rien”, which in its turn was being drowned out by a woman screaming:”Au revoir to Europe! Let’s reclaim our cultural identity!”

“Hear hear, good woman Hetta,” congratulated a friend in a plummy English accent.

In spite of the carnival atmosphere (there were free Irish beef sandwiches and Irish milk for those willing to hold a placard) it was all in vain. The protestors let out a roar of fury when they found they had been tricked by the police to assemble at the wrong end of the street, putting a safe 200 yards between them and Mr Sarkozy’s limousine.

After lunch with government ministers, the French president was due to meet a round table of pro and anti-Lisbon Treaty campaigners at the French embassy – an arrangement which only served to stoke Irish anger following Mr Sarkozy’s gaffe last week when he said that the Irish would have to vote again.

“Mind your own business, onion head.” It might not have been the most diplomatic protest placard which Mr Sarkozy didn’t get to see, but as a summary of the public mood in Dublin’s streets it couldn’t be bettered.

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