15 years ago today, the smoking ban was introduced. I remember being against it initially but now it's fucking weird and fsels wrong to be in a foreign pub where you can smoke.

God, I remember the publicans saying it was "unenforceable" and that people would leave the pubs in droves and they would all go out of business. Other pubs proposed shit like you can't smoke at the bar.

Come the ban, people still went to the pubs and apart from one or two news stories, most people adapted almost instantly to it. Other pubs suddenly found they had 'beer gardens' out of nowhere. Some of these beer gardens may as well been considered indoors.

I remember being in Louth and one bar had put in a huge covered 'sky light' and seemingly that was okay for the regulator in Louth. In reality, they just put in a big window and kept part of the window open to make it 'outdoors'.

/r/ireland Thread Parent Link - rte.ie