How a civil servant won the battle with big tobacco

It was 20 years ago that an Irish civil servant named Tom Power won a remarkable battle against the tobacco industry when Ireland enacted the world's first ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and workplaces.

- Rory Carroll

TV crews from Japan, the US and elsewhere flocked to Dublin to record the events of 29 March 2004. No one knew what would happen. Would smokers revolt? Would pubs flout the law? Would the bold experiment go up in smoke?

The tobacco industry, after all, had deep pockets and a versatile playbook to discredit restrictions by decrying the nanny state, health fascism, the destruction of businesses. And a country famed for smoky bars and a rebellious streak was an unlikely pioneer.

Within hours of pubs opening the TV crews got their answer. There was no revolt and the ban prevailed. It set an example other countries followed, saving countless lives.

"Tom Power was an encyclopedia on the tobacco industry," said Micheál Martin, who was health minister at the time. "He understood every move the tobacco industry would make." Members of the alliance that ushered in the ban compare Power to an engineer, a guide and a chess grandmaster who anticipated and countered the opponent's strategy. He died in 2005, at the age of 55, but last Friday's anniversary of the landmark ban has shone a new light on his role.