February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Ronan Lawless, owner of the Fibber Magee’s pub in Galway’s Eyre Square, openly flouted the controversial ban for three days last week, allowing drinkers to smoke on the premises.
The pub closed on Thursday with the owner claiming he would have to wind up his business if the government refused to compromise on the ban. The Western Health Board gave the bar until 4 p.m. on Thursday to reinstate the ban.
The deadline followed the very public intervention of Justice Minister Michael McDowell.
McDowell, clearly concerned that the fledgling ban could be hit by widespread breaches, issued a stern warning for any other publicans considering following Magee’s example.
“I want to make it clear to anyone considering following this example that an immediate instruction would go out to every superintendent to oppose the renewal of any license of anyone flouting the law in this way,” McDowell said.
The Western Health Board said it was preparing files in order to prosecute patrons of Fibber Magee’s who had smoked in the pub.
The decision by Lawless to ignore the ban made headlines around the globe. Several countries are considering following in Ireland’s footsteps. Norway introduced a sweeping ban on smoking only weeks after Ireland became the first European country to do so. Sweden will also ban smoking beginning next Jan. 1.
Lawless and his business partner, Ciaran Levanzin, said the pub had suffered a 63 percent fall in sales since the ban was introduced in late March. He said his other pubs — the River Inn, the Forster Court Hotel, Fox’s Bar and Cooke’s Thatch Bar — would continue trading as they had not been hit as hard.
Recent figures have indicated that many pubs, mainly in socially deprived areas, have seen a fall-off of up to 25 percent in trade. Early-morning bars and the “super pubs” of Dublin are also thought to have been particularly affected by the legislation.
The ban had been widely complied with after its introduction in March. Prior to the ban, observers had feared that it would lead to confrontations between bar-staff and customers. Garda sources also predicted that the ban could lead to an upsurge in drug-dealing outside nightclubs as patrons wishing to smoke would be driven out onto the streets where dealers could operate more freely.
Before Lawless? decision to flaunt the ban only two high-profile breaches had come to the public attention. U2 front man Bono was recently confronted by his own staff after lighting up in the lobby of his Clarence Hotel on Dublin’s Quays.
Fine Gael justice spokesman John Deasy was sacked the day after the ban’s introduction after he admitted to having smoked a number of cigarettes in the Dail bar.