A new survey shows that the number of smokers is on the increase in Ireland. Committed smoker Seán Mac Connellon life as an addict

IT'S HARD ENOUGH living in modern Ireland if you are small, grey, middle-aged, bearded, long-haired, and fond of a pint and an argument, without also being a smoker. All the other things are manageable, but the smoking bit is the kicker. Since the smoking ban, smokers are becoming more marginalised than ever in this modern, bottled-water-drinking, health- and property-obsessed society.

A new poll shows that despite all the pressure on us from horrific adverts showing the state of your lungs to the stark messages on the side of cigarette packs, we have still not been exterminated.

I have an instinct that the departure of the Celtic Tiger will see an upsurge in smoking, as folk become less impressed with what society delivers to them, become poorer and more marginalised, and have more time on their hands. Us smoking addicts know all the facts by now. We are told that there is a socio-economic element to smoking; in other words, the lower down the social scale you are, the more likely you are to smoke.

We also know that smoking rates are highest in Third World, poverty stricken, socially and economically under-developed places, and that smoking rates are lower in economically-developed countries.

Despite this, I find that the number of people lurking outside pubs in sleet and rain, sheltering from the cold to feed their addiction, is growing rather than diminishing, and they are not all from the deprived sectors of society. The most awful side of this is that there are far more young people, especially women, smoking now than say, two years ago. We know that young women smoke to lose weight but this cannot be the full answer.

Is it because young folk are getting fed up with all the rules and regulations and restrictions that are being placed on them by modern society? Is it possible that our youngsters are becoming more radical and restless? I don't know.

I think the best way to make something popular and even fashionable in this country is to ban it. I have a theory that the Irish language could be revived in less than a year if it were forbidden and people fined heavily for using it.

I was warned when commissioned to write this piece that under no circumstances should I glamourise smoking in any way. I did not need that instruction and neither would anyone who is a nicotine addict.

It is truly a dirty, smelly, obnoxious dangerous habit without any upside. I have yet to meet a smoker who would not admit that they wished they had never started smoking and that, I think, says it all.

However, I come from a generation where smokers were in the majority, a legacy of the great flu of 1918 when doctors advised that smoking would protect you. All the great heroes of screen and stage smoked.

The ultimate act of kindness in the films I grew up with was for the hero to light a cigarette for the dying man. It was the norm. It was cool. It was what you did and it marked the passage between childhood and becoming an adult.

No one who has never been hooked on cigarettes can understand the depth of the addiction. Those who know tell me that it is easier to get off heroin than nicotine.

I know that it's much easier to give up alcohol than nicotine because I have done both in my day. When the government ban on smoking in pubs was being introduced, I went to a hypno-therapist and one hour later came out to face a smoke-free future. I played the tapes at night, drank the water, took the long walks. I did all I was told to do.

Within weeks, I was a shivering wreck, unable to concentrate, sleep or communicate. I ate like a horse, drank like a whale and put on two stone. My levels of irritation increased far beyond anything I had ever experience before. Perhaps the worst thing of all was that I was unable to climb mountains with the ease and comfort and enjoyment that I experienced before. That was a nightmare, and after two years I eventually made a conscious decision to smoke again, albeit at a much lower level.

There is nothing I miss about my smoke-free days but I still hate carrying an €8.05-per-day habit. I dislike having to go out in the rain and cold to smoke but above all I abhor the way society treats addicts such as myself and the other wretches you spot smoking outside. I still cannot understand how Irish people accepted the ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants. It has not worked in Spain, France or Italy. The promise that non-smokers would fill the pubs when we were put out has not materialised.

When I go abroad where people are allowed to smoke in pubs and restaurants, I still go outside. I find it difficult to smoke in a pub and will never again smoke in a restaurant. Of course, it's a great way of meeting the smoking Irish abroad because they all do the same thing.

And by the way, smokers will never be a financial burden on the health service. At the rates of tax we pay on our cigarettes, I venture to suggest we are far ahead in terms of funding our own way to the grave.

See News, page 3

Smokingthe statistics

• In June 2003 an estimated 24.9 per cent of the Irish population were smokers. This figure dropped to 23.58 per cent in March of this year.

•Some 7,000 people die from smoking- related diseases in Ireland each year.

•Some 90 per cent of lung cancers are caused by smoking and 50 per cent of all smokers will die from smoking-related diseases.

•It costs €1 billion a year to provide health services for smokers.

•Passive-smoke exposure increases the risk of stroke by 82 per cent.

•Some 56 per cent of women aged 18 to 29 in the lowest socio-economic class are smokers compared to 28 per cent of women in the same age group in the highest social class.

•A Health Behaviour in School-aged Children report, published in June, found that 15 per cent of 15-year-olds were smoking daily in 2006 compared with 16 per cent in 2002.

•A Dutch company has come up with a non-nicotine-based soft drink that gives a sensation akin to smoking cigarettes. The manufacturers claim it will take the edge off nicotine-craving for one to four hours.
Liquid Smoking comes in a 275ml can shaped like a cigarette packet. It is an energy drink laced with South African herbs which delivers "a slight energising effect, followed by a euphoric sense of calming and relaxation", according to its manufacturers, United Drinks and Beauty Corporation.
There is no age limit to buy it, but the manufacturer says it should not be taken by anyone under 15.