Dutch revive memories of world before smoking ban

A first ever visit to Amsterdam is a salve for the soul; meandering along its beautiful, cobbled streets, stopping off for a beer at a quiet table on a bridge overlooking one of its many canals, marvelling at the artistic genius of Rembrandt and Van Gogh – what’s not to savour?

Well, smoking for a start.

Not the dope smoking that Amsterdam is famous – or infamous – for, although the sight of someone skinning up on the street before breakfast-time takes a while to adjust to.

This is just the smoking of cigarettes, or more precisely the failure to properly dispose of their butts when they’re finished.

And when you cast them listlessly on cobbled streets, they invariably find their way into the cracks and crevices to make it impossible for the street cleaners to reach.

Perhaps it’s as a consequence of the free access to cannabis, but I can’t recall visiting a city where so many people smoked in public. The proliferation of twentysomethings smoking, in particular, was like a throwback to Ireland in the seventies.

The other city I can remember for its proliferation of smokers was Helsinki, so maybe it’s a Scandinavian thing - although Finland was more understandable because it might be help them stay warm.

And of course the reason there is so much outdoor smoking in Amsterdam is the same reason that you see people huddled in doorways here; it’s banned indoors and anywhere around the workplace – including social areas and even in company vehicles.

Where it goes further than Ireland is that there are very few designated smoking areas for workers either – so the street is your only option.

As in all countries with smoking bans, there are areas outside pubs, hotels and restaurants where smoking is allowed, and that’s as it should be because – while I’m patently no fan of the habit – I appreciate that there are many who love it and are as entitled to exercise their free will as I am to stay away from their cloudbursts.

I should also acknowledge the response from Irish smokers when Micheál Martin came up with the ban in pubs all of 21 years ago. They could have dug in and wrecked it because it would have been impossible to enforce it without their cooperation – but they didn’t.