Imagine if Humphrey Bogart had vaped

A lifetime ago I argued that to smoke was to be cool and hip like those idols in the Saturday matinee. I mean, be honest, what would Bogart and Bacall and Casablanca have been like were it not for those o -grey wisps trailing across Bogie’s face as he looked longingly and lustfully into Lauren’s eyes? (Cigarette smoke plays wonders with soft focus).

By the time I was rearing a family, the jury was well and truly back in with a damning verdict on the health implications of smoking tobacco. e past eight years I vape. E-cigarettes and vaping is a way to ingest nicotine –without the smoke and tar that comes from burning tobacco. e vaping device, a mod, contains a battery that heats a liquid spiked with nicotine, producing a vapour the user inhales.

Finally, I thought, a way to smoke that wouldn’t totally derail my health, given that manufactured cigarettes contain at least 400 poisonous and proven carcinogenic compounds not, allegedly, found in vaping juice, which is basically nicotine in a vegetable suspension. I vape now, and nd it a much more satisfying – if smoking could be said to be satisfying – way of getting my daily nicotine x. And judging by the slew of vaping shops up and down the country, I am not alone. e economic saving is a given: smoking a pack of fags a day will set you back €112 a week, the annual equivalent to the cost of a good holiday abroad. Vaping, after the initial set-up costs for a mod and a tank for the juice, sets me back the princely sum of €7 a week.

I like, too, the aesthetics of vaping, and the ergonomics of the machines, of which I now have as many as, once,

I had train sets in my attic. Also, my local pub allows me to vape discreetly. (When it’s a full house, I desist).

What of the health implications, though? e jury is apparently calling for a retrial of vaping, following recent deaths, allegedly from electronic smoking, in the US and hundreds of others taking ill. RTE’s Claire byrne radio show was wallto- wall pro and anti vaping last week. Vaping per se o the hook when it comes to asking if it is healthier, or better still, less harmful, than tobacco smoking. You are, after all, inhaling nicotine into your lungs. Nicotine is addictive but only minimally potentially poisonous. However, it is the suspensions and arti cial agents used, particularly in avoured juices – hugely popular with young users –that are questionable. e reality is that we know nothing about the longterm health implications of vaping, given the habit has been around for only 15 years or so. ere has not been enough, if any, research done on the matter. Given the numerous manufacturers of vaping machines and juices, there is no o cial record of the exact constituents of these varying juices or of the safety of some of the gadgetry, what with occasional reporting of mods exploding in people’s faces. e opening of the Watergate eatre in early 1993 was a milestone in the development of Kilkenny Musical Society and their production of “ e Pirates of Penzance” in May of that year marked their debut in a professional theatre and introduced the society to the demands of staging a musical production in a professional technical arena. Every year since then

Like the tobacco business was – still is – a multi-billion dollar industry, worldwide, the market for vaping products was estimated at about $14.5 billion last year, and growing rapidly. You can be certain that there are vested interests hell-bent on keeping the lid tight on any harmful health implications associated with this vaping trend. With the jury just left the room, the medical profession here, and elsewhere, is divided on the issue. Medics here are keeping a close eye on developments with the FDA in America. “It’s all very days early yet,” says Professor Stephen Lane, a consultant respiratory physician at Tallaght University Hospital in Dublin.

Meanwhile, you can bet your bottom euro a hefty tax will soon be slapped on vaping, long before the jury comes back on its health implications.

In the year 1973, Ireland was a changing landscape, socially, politically and economically. Our country had joined the EEC, Fianna Fail’s 16 year reign in Government came to an end, and the rst edition of the Sunday World newspaper went on sale. But here in the marble city another odyssey was beginning. e formation of what is now one of the foremost amateur musical theatre societies in the country –Kilkenny Musical Society.

Founded in 1973 by Kilkenny theatre legend Donal O’Brien and the late and great Kitty Drohan, Kilkenny Musical Society is this year, celebrating its 50th anniversary. is group of local singers, actors, musicians and dancers performed their rst production of ' e Gypsy Baron' in the spring of 1974 in the Friary Hall, Kilkenny and this was to become the home of the society until 1992 when their production of ' e Merry Widow' became the last show to be staged in the Friary Hall.