Men-only pub punters can’t light up or chat up

WOMEN and smoking carry a health warning in a Waterford pub.

The former are not encouraged and for the last two years, customers have been unable to light up.

While lobby groups insist the forthcoming ban will hurt business and result in job losses, smokers at Moondharrig House in O’Connell Street are already being told to leave the premises.

Tom and Mary Maher, who own the bar which dates back to 1886, have a reputation for promoting moderate drinking and taking an interest in the moral wellbeing of patrons. “We brought this in about two years ago because the smoke was affecting Tom’s health. The customers are quite satisfied with it and many of them even welcomed it,” said Mary, who believes the no-smoking ban will work in other bars nationwide following its success in Waterford.

“People seem to prefer a bar without smoke, but I don’t know if it will work in nightclubs and places like that,” she said. Feminists who claim the bar’s men-only policy is discriminatory and a throwback to the 19th or early 20th century, have picketed the pub which only opens for limited periods.

But Senator Brendan Kenneally (FF) said the owners should be congratulated for taking the initiative in banning smoking.