As I mentioned yesterday I am in Cork for a meeting with my Forest colleague John Mallon.
John has been our representative in Ireland since 2010 and I’ve been coming here for meetings and events ever since.
However my first trip to any part of Ireland was in 1986 when I flew to Belfast to visit a friend who was in the army.
I was given a room in barracks to the north of the city, had dinner in the officers’ mess, and felt as safe as I had when visiting him at another army base in Corsham, Wiltshire.
The following day however, when we set off in a hire car on a sightseeing trip, it was explained that because I was with a British soldier - albeit on his day off and not in uniform - two-thirds of the province were out of bounds for safety reasons.
We therefore kept to the well-worn tourist route to Giant’s Causeway and avoided going off piste.
A year or two later I visited the south for the first time. I went to a weekend conference in Dun Laoghaire, south of Dublin, but for reasons I can neither remember nor explain I travelled there and back by train and ferry, an excruciating 12-hour journey each way.
I didn’t visit Ireland again until 2003, the year before the smoking ban was introduced. There was some opposition to the ban but it was centred in Waterford where two groups had been set up to oppose the measure.
They were called Smokers Against Discrimination (SAD) and European Smokers Against Discrimination (ESAD) which sounded to me like the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea.
I met the founder of one (I think it was SAD) but neither had any money and we couldn’t afford to support them which in hindsight was regrettable because a well organised, well-funded campaign might have enjoyed more success and it would have sent a warning to the UK government as well.
Nevertheless we did what we could (mostly media interviews) and later that year I returned to Ireland when Forest was invited to take part in a debate about the smoking ban at University College Dublin, a visit I described thus:
Tuesday October 14, 2003
To Ireland to take part in a debate organised by the Literary and Historical Society at University College Dublin. Subject: smoking in public places. My colleague Jo Gaffikin and I are following in some famous footsteps, including James Joyce and every Irish prime minister since 1921.
Although we lose the debate we don't disgrace ourselves, persuading a significant number of non-smokers to vote against the motion [to ban smoking in public places]. It is nevertheless astounding to hear so many students support the political establishment on such a fundamental issue. Ironically, the vote in favour of a smoking ban comes at the same time that students at UCD are calling for a boycott of Pepsi Cola for some obscure reason that escapes me.
To be fair, the evening is more stand-up comedy than serious debate and some of the students are very funny. It's the guest speakers who let the side down. Jo and I do our best to enter into the spirit of the occasion (Jo’s boots, featuring a smoking cowboy, catch the eye) but the two public health speakers deliver such crushingly boring speeches, which they read line by line from notes, it's a miracle no-one is injured in a mass stampede for the exit.
The following year, on the eve of the ban, I returned to Dublin:
Wednesday March 24, 2004
To Ireland, courtesy of Sky News who want me to appear on Richard Littlejohn’s show (live from Dublin on Friday evening) to take part in a debate about the Irish smoking ban which comes into force the next day.
I decided to travel a couple of days early in order to experience the traditional smoker-friendly Irish bar for possibly the last time. Personally I have my doubts that the ban can be enforced and I intend to come back in six months to find out how ‘successful' it has been.
In the meantime my arrival is delayed because I managed to miss the plane!! I blame the BBC with whom I got into an argument after they published the results of an 'interactive' poll that suggested that 73 per cent of people want a ban on smoking in public.
According to the small print in the BBC's own press release it was a 'consultation' not a scientific poll. Needless to say this didn't come across in the way it was reported nor did it deter them from promoting it as a 'top story' on both BBC Online and Ceefax. Top story, my arse. This was a publicly gimmick, pure and simple, for a BBC programme about the NHS to be broadcast tonight.
Curiously the producers contacted Forest last week to see if we could suggest someone to take part in the studio debate. I offered to do it myself, even though it would have meant delaying my departure to Dublin by a day, only to be told that “We want an ordinary member of the general public.”
Oh well, I'm in Dublin now. Tonight I shall watch the Arsenal-Chelsea [Champions League] match in the comfort of an Irish pub and tomorrow I’m visiting a pub once frequented by Sir Walter Raleigh, the man who 400 odd years ago provoked the entire smoking debate. Well done, Walter, see the trouble you’ve caused!
Thursday March 25, 2004
To Johnnie Fox's, the highest and possibly the most famous pub in County Dublin. Founded in 1798, this traditional if slightly kitsch pub has played host to presidents, ambassadors, royalty, sports stars, tourists, "chatty locals" and even Salman Rushdie.
A stone-flagged floor ("daily strewn with sawdust"), ancient bric-a-brac, old dressers, open fireplace and crackling logs are just some of the attractions of this wonderful place. Investigate further and you'll find a penny farthing on one wall and, outside, a feeding pot said to have been used by up to 800 people daily during the potato famine.
Smoker-friendly? A simple glance at walls adorned with advertisements for long gone brands and slogans will tell you all you need to know: Craven 'A' ('smooth to the lips'), Gold Flake ('chosen by Aer Lingus'), Will's Flag, Capstan Navy Cut, 'Wild Woodbine', 'Player's Please' and, my favourite, 'Smoke Clarke's Perfect Plug'.
Next week, thanks to Ireland's ambitious, uncompromising health minister Michael Martin, smoking will be banned in Johnnie Fox's. With its reputation for great food, numerous beers and a good selection of wines and spirits, I can't imagine that business will be much affected. But it will be different, and in my view the poorer for it.
The good news is that Johnny Fox's is not abandoning smokers altogether. While other bars are busy erecting canopies and awnings with outside heaters so people can still smoke in relative comfort, JF has acquired an original 1952 double-decker bus, refurbished it, and renamed it the Happy Smoking Bus.
On Monday it will tour the streets of Dublin before returning to its final resting place outside the pub where it will provide a peaceful sanctuary for the pub’s many smokers. Effervescent business manager Fred Rainert tells me customers can smoke on the bus as long as it's not staffed. And the number plate? FU 2.
Friday March 26, 2004
To Dublin, via Kilcoole, to appear on Littlejohn (Sky News). Why Kilcoole? It's a long story. Suffice to say I was distracted by a radio producer who rang to ask if I would appear on Five Live on Sunday evening. I was on the platform at Greystones, a small town south of Dublin, and we were still talking when a train – the wrong train, as it turns out – pulled in to the station and I climbed aboard.
Ten minutes after the train set off a kindly ticket inspector confirmed my error but couldn't have been more helpful. "I'll tell you what," he said. "This is a non-stop train to Wicklow but I'll have a word with the driver and we'll stop at Kilcoole and you can get the bus back."
With hindsight it would have been quicker to stay on the train and travel back to Dublin from Wicklow. ""You'll be waiting there at least two hours," a friendly voice called out to me as I stood at the first bus stop I encountered. "Keep walking till you find the main road. A bus should be along in an hour or so."
It was only lunchtime so I still had five hours to get back to Dublin via bus, train and taxi, check in to my hotel, shower and change clothes, but in the end I only just made it, arriving at the Shelbourne Hotel, where Littlejohn was being broadcast, with five minutes to spare.
Saturday March 27, 2004
Dublin is awash with kilted Scotsmen. According to the papers, 10,000 are in town for this afternoon's Six Nations rugby match against Ireland. What a pity the smoking ban wasn't implemented a few weeks earlier. The chances of it being enforced on big match day would have been nil. I look forward to 2005 when thousands of Galloise-smoking French supporters descend en masse on Dublin's bar and restaurants.
To read the papers and reflect on last night’s programme, I find a small coffee shop liberally sprinkled with soon to be redundant ashtrays. (The smoking ban is to be enforced from 6.00am on Monday.) Littlejohn was a hoot. Broadcast live from the Shelbourne, one of Dublin's most historic hotels, the hour-long show featured over a dozen commentators providing a wide range of opinion about the smoking ban. Presenter (and Sun columnist) Richard Littlejohn made no secret of his views (a non-smoker, he's an outspoken opponent of blanket bans), but the programme as a whole was well balanced.
Split into groups of three, guests were seated on stools beside small round tables trembling under the weight of alcohol. To the disappointment of production staff, very few people were actually smoking. My contribution was limited to a brief verbal spat with Professor Luke Clancy, the genial spokesman for ASH Ireland, after which I retired to the bar for another pint of Guinness.
After the programme Tadg O'Sullivan, chief executive of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, told me he thought 'our' side had won. I thought we escaped with a draw, thanks to Littlejohn himself and an extraordinary performance by an anti-smoking columnist with the Irish Sunday Mirror that was so melodramatic I thought she must be auditioning for the part of pantomime dame. Someone whispered in my ear that this was no act - apparently she's like this all the time. “God help her husband,” said another voice.
The antis scored a further own goal when a good looking young restaurateur said he supported a general ban because if he prohibited smoking and others didn't he would lose customers. Doh! Of course similar views have been expressed by some restaurateurs in Britain. The free market, they seem to be saying, is a wonderful thing unless it adversely affects their business, at which point they demand regulations to create a 'level playing field'.
Sunday March 28, 2004
Returning to the UK from Ireland I can't help noticing that Dublin Airport now has warnings by every entrance:
NO SMOKING ANYWHERE IN THIS BUILDING:
The Tobacco Smoking (Prohibition) Regulation 2003.
It's all rather intimidating, as if smoking poses as great a threat as terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
Far more civilised and welcoming are the designated smoking areas at Stansted and all major UK airports. If you're a nervous flyer who desperately needs a fag before or after a flight, airport smoking areas provide an oasis in the desert. Anyone who can't see that is not just being politically correct, they're being mean-spirited and vindictive, words that accurately describe today's obsessive anti-smokers.
Five months later I returned to Ireland again to conduct some research into the impact of the ban. Forest chairman Lord Harris encouraged me to take my family and have a holiday at the same time so we took the car and travelled to Westport (in Co Mayo), Galway, Dublin, Waterford and Kilkenny.
One day I would be climbing Croagh Patrick, the next I would be visiting pubs and bars in Westport or Galway.
In smaller towns such as Waterford the impact of the ban was obvious. Pubs I had visited the previous year at lunchtime were now closed until 5.00pm because the elderly male customers who would sit quietly from midday to mid afternoon nursing their pipe and a pint had been driven away.
There were however some ingenious strategies to get round the ban.
For example, the owner of a pub in Kilkenny had built a large extension on the first floor where people could smoke in comfort. It had its own bar with tables and stools. It also had four solid walls and a high pitched roof that offered almost total protection from bad weather.
How it passed the new regulations I’ve no idea but it did and everyone, including the staff we spoke to, seemed happy with the result.
In Dublin I was taken to a smoking room that was inside the pub. There were stools and small raised tables and if I remember correctly both the door and floor to ceiling dividing wall were made of glass so staff and customers could see in and those inside could see out.
It looked and felt completely enclosed but the ‘room’ was like a chimney and high above our heads was a hole through which you could see the sky so technically it was said to be ‘outside’ and smoking was allowed. Ingenious.
In 2010 we belatedly launched Forest Ireland and invited John Mallon (who we identified as being ‘one of us’ due to his persistent letters to the press on the issue of smoking) to be our spokesman in Ireland.
Since then, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 - the pandemic years - I’ve been coming here at least once and often several times a year.
I enjoy every visit and our annual pre-Christmas dinner when I get together with John and others to review the current year and discuss what may happen in the year ahead is always a highlight.
Thank you to them and to everyone I have worked with in Ireland over the years … sláinte!
Below: journalist Ian O’Doherty with a Voices of Freedom award, presented by Forest at a dinner in Dublin in November 2018
