Madam, - I don't wish to sound like the pub bore, and I suppose everything to be said on the matter has been said, but from what I have seen the smoking ban has been not only accepted by everyone (apart from the publicans and the perennial grouches) but actually embraced.
Smokers know that setting fire to a weed wrapped in saltpeter-laced paper and inhaling the smoke thereof is not in the best interest of their health. I myself (a part-time "pint" smoker) and many others I know do not mind making the small sacrifice of going outside rather than forcing others to share our vice.
Not only do you find yourself cutting down (which any non-suicidal person would like to do), but you get to talk to people you might otherwise never have talked to, with the added bonus of having a perfect alibi to take leave of their company if it proves to have been a mistake. - Yours, etc.,
PASCAL ROSENSTOCK,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.