The city centre pub in Galway, western Ireland, has seen its business drop by 60 percent since March when smoking in workplaces became illegal.

With ruin staring him in the face, co-owner Ronan Lawless felt he had to act.  “We had absolutely no option,” Lawless, 33, told RTE state radio on Wednesday. “We were going to be out of business in the next month anyway.”

About 200 people packed into an upstairs room at the pub on Tuesday evening for a cigarette in the first major challenge to the nationwide ban.

Health Minister Micheal Martin described what happened as “an unacceptable defiance of the law” and warned others not to follow suit. “You can take it from me there will be no holds barred in terms of taking this head-on and upholding the law in all its aspects,”

(Isn’t it nice when a nicotine nanny with nothing to lose brings down the full weight of government force on a small business owner desperatey trying to save his livelihood.)

Source: Swissinfo.ch Link

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