Cigarette firms warned that ad ban could pose Marxist/IRA threat

Ireland’s main cigarette brands privately warned the Taoiseach three decades ago that a tobacco advertising ban could plunge the country into disaster by sparking a deadly fusion of Marxists and the IRA.

State files also reveal fears in Jack Lynch’s department at the time that moves to curb smoking could become another contraception-type row that would embarrass the Republic and isolate Protestants in the North.