Northern Ireland's incoming and outgoing health ministers, Paul Goggins and Michael McGimpsey, yesterday urged the North's cigarette addicts to be brave and kick their nicotine habits as Ireland was finally declared free of smoking in public places.
The smoking prohibition became effective from 6am yesterday, bringing Northern Ireland in line with the Republic. In most bars, hotels and restaurants, anti-smoking signs were prominently displayed as patrons came to terms with the new "ban the weed" regime. On Sunday some pubs and clubs across Northern Ireland marked the end of cigarette-friendly bars with smoking "wakes".
There are 140 inspectors to enforce the ban but again, just like in the Republic, the majority of people appeared happy with the new law.
Northern Ireland Office health minister Mr Goggins and the man who will replace him next Tuesday, May 8th, Michael McGimpsey of the Ulster Unionist Party were present in the King's Head pub in south Belfast yesterday morning for the official announcement of the ban.
Mr Goggins said he ended a 30-a-day habit 30 years ago. "Like lots of other people I gave cigarettes up dozens of times before that but finally stopped altogether when I married my wife, Wyn," he explained.
He advised the estimated quarter of the North's population who still smoke that quitting the habit would benefit them both healthwise and financially. "I reckon that by today's prices I've saved myself stg£95,000 [ €139,125] in giving up cigarettes," he said.
"This ban," he said, "is a victory for common sense, a victory for good evidence and a victory for good campaigning over many years."
He said that 270 people die each year in Northern Ireland as a result of secondary smoking and that 2,300 die annually from smoking-related illnesses.
He also said that it costs £40 million a year to treat these illnesses.
Mr McGimpsey was also a smoker who quit eight or 10 years ago, although gradually. "I stopped smoking cigarettes about 15-20 years ago. Then I went onto cigars, then onto a pipe.
"When I was on the pipe I used to kid myself that I wasn't inhaling and not doing myself any harm, but of course I was," he said.
The ban will encourage smokers to quit, he said. "Anybody I know who smokes wants to stop and this ban should be used as an aid to giving up."
Bars which flout the ban were warned they could be reported by the public to a compliance telephone line.
Fines of £50 will be immediately imposed on any smoker who insists on smoking in a pub or enclosed public space, while businesses could be fined up to £2,500 for failing to enforce the ban.
Ireland, Scotland and Wales are now anti-smoking while England will impose the ban on July 1st.