Posted on 07/07/2004 1:24:18 AM PDT by ijcr
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - A lone Galway pub has thrown down the gauntlet to the Irish government over its 3-month-old ban on workplace smoking - by inviting customers to rebel and light up. "We're taking a stand," declared Ciaran Levanzin, co-owner of the Fibber Magee's pub in the central Eyre Square of Galway, where ashtrays returned to tables Tuesday and customers were encouraged to puff away.
It marked the first deliberate effort by any of Ireland's more than 10,000 pubs to defy the ban. The measure has been almost universally observed - and, in a country where 70 percent of adults do not smoke, broadly popular - since its March 29 introduction.
However, Fibber Magee's rebellion proved hugely popular in Galway, a bustling university city famed for its night life.
As RTE, Ireland's state broadcasters, reported live outside the pub Tuesday night that the place was "absolutely crammed with drinkers and smokers," a huge roar of approval could be heard from the crowd inside watching the news.
Levanzin said he had already been obliged to lay off a third of his workers since the ban came into force. He said more than half of the pub's previous customers had been smokers.
"Why do this? Because we're going out of business. We might as well go out with a puff of smoke," he said.
Health Minister Micheal Martin led the push for the ban, arguing that anybody employed in enclosed workplaces should not be exposed to cancer-causing smoke. The move - the first by any nation - was modeled on similar measures imposed in California, New York City and more than a dozen other U.S. cities.
Inspectors from the government-appointed Western Health Board stopped by Fibber Magee's and warned the pub's other co-owner, Ronan Lawless, they could face a $3,700 fine and, eventually, the loss of their liquor license.
But Lawless said such punishment, if it comes to that, wouldn't matter.
"With the smoking ban, our business was going down the tubes anyway. We've no option but to invite our smoking customers back and see what happens," he said.
The Vintners Federation of Ireland, which represents more than 6,000 pub owners, said Tuesday that business nationwide had fallen by 15 percent to 25 percent since the ban and predicted worse would come.
"Many small, rural, family-owned pubs have been hit particularly hard since the introduction of the ban and have serious concerns for their livelihoods and the future of their staff," said the federation president, Seamus O'Donoghue, who also runs a pub in the midlands market town of Portlaoise. "Once the summer season ends and the weather worsens, further loss of business is inevitable."
Hundreds of pubs have bought gazebos, screens and outdoor heaters to create new smoking areas outdoors, because only enclosed workplaces are covered by the ban. It's quickly become common to see gaggles of shivering smokers chatting, pint in hand, outside roadside pubs at night.
When smoking is outlawed only the Lawless will have smoking.
Good idea, I would support a bar with the guts to do the same in the US. They should openly say shove it to the government.
If tobacco had been discovered in the late 20th century, there's no way tobacco would be legal.
I think health concerns override personal freedom here.
According to the largest metastudy on ETS ever conducted, ETS has a prophalactic effect.
That was done by the WHO.
I don't agree that health concerns override freedom in this case.
If you don't want to be exposed to secondhand smoke, you have a choice: don't go into a place in which smoking is permitted. Period.
where there's smoke there's ire(land)
That also goes for motorcycles (too dangerous) and professional baseball (too boring). Things should be left to run their course naturally. Smoking will eventually disappear on its own, without the help of these meddling busybodies.
Freedom the ultimate life experience try some today !
The staff who work in these places did not have a choice about the air they breathe. In the case, I think their rights are more important than mine as a smoker.
They have a choice about where they work, for God's sake. Believe me--there are plenty of non-smoking establishments out there, and there are always job openings (I know; I bartended for eight years.)
Are these staff members feudal serfs who are chained to their place of employment from the day they're born until the day they die?
What if a drunken brawl breaks out and one of the enslaved employees is injured?
POPPYCOCK!
Government has no right to tell a pub owner whether he can or cannot allow smoking. Such a decision is a business decision best left to the owner.
Whether to support a pub owner's smoking or no smoking election is a decision the customers will make, to the pub owner's benefit or detriment.
It is very simple: if you don't like smoke filled rooms, stay out of them!
The staff have the same choices as the customers -- if they don't like smoke filled rooms, they can stay out of them!
I.e., find another job!
But they certainly have the choice as to where they work. Your argument reeks of "for the children."
What is most interesting about this, is that it admits that the Pubs and Bars are being hit hard commercialy.
All the anti smokers have been shouting that there is no financial hardship and that the experiment is a massive success.
Well this news puts all that in perspective. Just more lies from the fascist do gooders
I'm glad to hear of it. It's about time the people stood up to such ridiculous overreaching of government. And what more appropriate person to do it than Lawless. ha ha.
I've had a couple of pints at Fibbers in Galway. It's a great lively place. The Irish definitely are gregarious people.
They have the right to find another job if they don't like smoke!
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