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2004: VILLAINS:In March, in a series of simultaneous attacks, 13 bombs ripped through Madrid’s train system killing 200 people and injuring thousands. It was the work of an al-Qaeda terrorist cell, and it was Europe’s worst terrorist incident since the Lockerbie PanAm bombing in 1988. In the north Caucasus, in a horrifying 53 hour siege by Chechen separatists in a school in Beslan, South Ossetia, at least 338 people, half of them children, were killed during a bloodbath.

Despite fierce opposition from vested interests, notably publicans who predicted catastrophic effects on their profits, minister for health Micheál Martin introduced a smoking ban in restaurants, pubs and other public places, to take effect from midnight on March 28th. Ireland was so ahead of many of our European neighbours in introducing the ban that it became an international news story.