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Created on Friday, 26 February 2016 15:09
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Written by James Leavey
Wondering why there are few cigar smokers to be seen dropping ash in The DCE this week? Chances are
many of them have flown to Havana - which is about to host the 18th Habanos Cigar Festival.
Imagine it ….partying with thousands of dedicated fellow aficionados when the whole she-bang
starts on 29 February until it runs out of steam on 4 March 2016.
After which debauchery the Irish contingent will head back home humming Guatanamara and
reeking of the latest Cuban special editions.
If you are unable to make this annual celebration of Havanas in the country they were grown
and rolled in, you could always step round to Grafton Street where Mr Guy Hancock and the
boys will do their very best to make you think you've died and gone to Havana Heaven.
Sure, the Cuban music may be piped but the cigars and company will make up for it.
Or you could start your own festival at home with a selection of your favourite cigars,
an empty ashtray, your best booze and like-minded friends and family who enjoy getting
in out of the rain in Dublin and into a bottle and a great tube of some of the world's finest
tobacco.
Hopefully, the Cubans have given up on introducing another smoking ban. The last one
they tried was just before their annual cigar festival about a decade ago. It suffered from
a communication failure , i.e. not everybody in Havana was told the ban was in place and
some bars and restaurants tried turning away the thousands of smokers who had flown in
to enjoy an uninterrupted smoke in peace.
The result: mayhem!
A year later I rolled up in Havana when the no smoking signs had been taken down and asked
what happened to the hapless Cuban civil servant who tried to initiate his country's first ban
on smoking in public. I was told he had gone missing...
What a pity the same thing hasn't happened in Ireland.
ends