Today Irish Parliament banned smoking in all public places throughout the emerald isles, including all hotels and bars. A page has turned prissily against the storied charm of the Irish pub.

Yep, it's so. But it won't come into effect until January 2004. We'll wait and see what adjustments are made to the legislation on the meantime.

USners. Could you all get together, please, and form a sub-committee to organise meeting up, flights to Ireland and travelling on - not to mention car pools from Shannon/Dublin/Knock - and money exchange? I've received a few queries about this from several people but there's nought that I can do about it from my nerve centre here.