The smoking ban did not make one bit of difference to the pubs in this small community in the West of Ireland.
Any closures here can be traced to an increased presence of police on the roads late at night (now spreading to mid-day the following day), thus making the rural population virtually immobile at night.
If the ban does bring about closures, it will be yet another 'victory' for the smoker, sulking at home because he can't manage without his fix for the couple of hours necessary to let drinkers drink in an unpolluted atmosphere.
Jim Carroll