Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has expressed "grief, shock and disbelief'' at the referendum result.

"The younger generation will be cut off and disadvantaged as a result of how the older generation has voted,'' Mr Ryan said. "What were [Leave voters] thinking when they allowed themselves to be led by such clowns as Johnson, Gove and Farage?"

He also asked what they were thinking when "they bought the bilious, bitter and bigoted lines of jingoistic newspapers like the Sun, Daily Express and the Daily Mail''.

Mr Ryan said the newspaper proprietors had sought to gain by building on the lack of society they helped to create when they supported British governments for the past 30 or 40 years, making frequent visits to Downing Street.

"What were they thinking when they ignored the shouts from the graves in the Somme, Verdun and the Dardanelles?'' Mr Ryan asked.

Lessons of war

They had also forgotten, he said, the lessons of two world wars and many other wars on the European continent down through the years.

Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall said that, in many ways, it was too early to address the Brexit implications.

“Now that it has happened, it is laying bare the complete lack of preparation in the UK, and in many ways in this country, for the vote going this way,’’ she said.

“It is only as time passes that the full implications of that historic vote are beginning to dawn on people.’’

Ms Shortall said Ireland had lost a very strong partner in Europe, a partner with which we had exceptionally close cultural and economic ties.

“Our peripheral position in the EU has undoubtedly become worse,’’ she added.