Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-06-27 08:27:09 - Graham Ellis
With the smoking ban in enclosed public places here in Ireland now being old news, things have settled down to the new way, and you'll find two communities at pubs like the one that's attached to the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght where I'm staying this week. A deep break as you walk toward the pub from the outside and pass through the outside community, then in to the clean air of the bar. They say that contrary to expectations, in many ways business has improved with the sensitive non-smokers coming back to the pubs, and the smokers now with much more of a sense of community.
There's other areas of the hotel, too, that seem to be "club corners"; I was in 'Network World' this morning, where everyone takes their laptops to get on line. The hotels "Internet access available" on their web site has turned out to mean that they've got an Eircom hotspot in reception ... not that it's available in any of the rooms. Once you've worked the system out, it seems to work well enough and I'm delighted that a 7 day signup is just 30 Euros - none of that crazy "shall I sign up for 30 minutes at 3 pounds or 2 hours at 5 pounds" at the Travel Inns. Prices are getting reasonable ...
The "Olive Tree" restaurant is taken over by the coach parties ("if it's Tuesday it must be Dublin") and we're had German, Belgian and English coaches so far. There's a truely cosmopolitain look to the city too. Sunday night, Lisa and I (British) ate in this country (Ireland) at an American Diner. The waitress was from Poland and the cooks were Chinese. And it was a great diner too - I can understand why they were queueing for tables out the door.