What I remember about the introduction of the Irish smoking ban
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:37 Today is the seventh anniversary of the smoking ban in Ireland.
Older readers should look away now because I've told this story before (many times, in fact) but it was an occasion that for personal reasons I shall never forget.
The ban was introduced, if I remember, in the early hours of Saturday morning. I was intending to be there anyway but I was invited to Dublin as a guest of the Richard Littlejohn Show on Sky News. The producers had decided to do a live broadcast from the Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen's Green on Friday night and the fact that England were playing Ireland in the Six Nations that weekend was, I guess, a coincidence and an added bonus for production staff.
Anyway the programme was broadcast from the main bar of the hotel from 7.00-8.00pm. Guests sat at small tables drinking and, in some cases, smoking, and Littlejohn moved from one table to another asking pre-arranged questions about the ban.
On my table was the former footballer (now an outspoken pundit and TV presenter) Eamonn Dunphy, who some might call a professional curmudgeon. I couldn't possibly comment. Thankfully he was on my side of the argument because I didn't fancy picking a fight with him.
Actually it was a miracle I was there at all. I had flown to Dublin the previous day and stayed overnight with friends in Delgany, Co Wicklow, which is south of the city. Around midday they dropped me at the station in Greystones, a mile up the road, so I could catch the train to Dublin, check into the Shelbourne (where Sky had booked me a room) and enjoy a quiet, relaxing afternoon.
It takes 50 minutes to get from Greystones to the city centre but it took me six hours. The trouble began when I boarded the wrong train, which was heading south instead of north. I didn't think this was possible because Greystones is the last stop on the DART (Dublin Area Regional Transport) network but in hindsight I had obviously caught a different service entirely.
Even then I didn't twig until, 15 minutes down the line, an inspector looked at my ticket and announced that I was travelling in the wrong direction.
He was very good about it, though. At the first available halt he instructed the driver to stop the train, helped me off, and pointed in the general direction of a few houses several hundred yards away and said, "See those houses? Keep walking. You'll come to a main road and a bus will take you back to Greystones."
Perhaps I should explain that a halt is nothing like a station. No platform, no taxis, no-one. It's the rail equivalent of a request stop for buses. As far as I could tell I had been dropped in the middle of a field miles from anywhere with a heavy bag and few directions other than the promise that I would eventually find the main road if I kept on walking.
To cut a long story short, I did find the main road. It was in a village called Kilcoole but to all intents and purposes Kilcoole was shut that afternoon. There weren't many cars on the road either and no sign of a bus.
I think I waited two hours but a bus did eventually appear and slowly (very slowly) took me back to Greystones where I finally caught the DART to Dublin. It was past six o'clock when I arrived in the city centre and I had to run (sweating) to the hotel where I checked-in, showered, before taking my seat in the well-lit bar where the Richard Littlejohn Show was about to start. I made it with 15 minutes to spare.
What really struck me that weekend was the response of the Irish media. There was a sense of pride that Ireland was "leading the world". The issue was tobacco control but it could have been anything. (The French, I'm sure, felt the same pride when they were the first to send fighter planes to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya. "Leading the world", see.)
What mattered was the fact that, for one weekend at least, Ireland – and Dublin in particular - was the centre of world attention.
PS. ASH Ireland ("working towards a tobacco free society") are using the anniversary to urge the Irish Health Minister to introduce further measures to tackle smoking. It has produced a "10-point plan" which I am looking forward to reading ... (not).
See also: Amend smoking ban "to help save Irish pub", says Forest Eireann.
Reader Comments (6)
Great story! But how sad for Ireland - Ireland, of all places - to feel proud about leading the world in wrecking millions of people's social lives.
I live in Ireland and the ban killed the pubs. For a couple of years you could at least go North and hold weddings and functions in smoking venues but then the Fascists closed that avenue as well. The Southern businesses particularly near the border were the biggest advocates of the ban in the North because they wanted a 'level playing field'.
They certainly got one because the pubs are shutting in the North too.
Eamonn Dunphy's autobiography is a great read and is regarded as one of the best ever books on football.
Poor old Ireland they'll never get above themselves.
Especially when the bigger players tell them they could be 'world leaders' for doing whatever they want them to do, just like the way they brought in the smoking ban for the EU back in 2004 that ruined the social life for other european countries as well as their own.
That now on the 8th anniversary of this disastrous smoking ban we have 'prof' Clancy of ASH Ireland demanding further restrictions of the smoking ban from our new govt of 'change', even though the country is bankcrupt and pubs and restaurants are closing down at the rate of noughts.
He must be under the impression that the EU are going to give us a bailout or something or else he's just plain mad.
As for that turncoat Eamon Dunphy, when his waining career took off in recent years and he became a sort of media personality he became a reformed character and gave up the fags and his drugs to become a pillar of society and said he agreed with the ban.
You have to look after the old job you know, and tip the hat to those that keep you in full employment these days!
I was living in Dublin when the smoking ban came in. It was like watching a tsunami for the first time, not knowing what really to expect, but knowing that it was coming anyway. After the tsunami I didn’t go out much, but when I did it was much easier to find a table and seat at the pub and much easier to find a taxi. It sucked the life out of the city. As I was thinking of moving away, the smoking-ban-effect made it easier for me to decide to move. I cannot help but wonder how much smoking bans have affected the economies of states that impose it – but for sure it is no coincidence we have such a severe global recession following the domino effect of smoking bans.
Pre Irelands smoking ban - I looked into spending New Year in Dublin, it was too expensive. The year after the smoking ban, just out of interest I looked again into going to Dublin for New Year. The deals were cheap as chips, however, I had no incentive to go.