The smoking stopover

Yesterday we posted about the frenetic activity at Shannon airport handling unscheduled stopovers by air-rage induced landings. But Shannon has also been kept busy for the last 18 months by stopovers of US military aircraft en route to the Middle East; its location makes it a perfect refuelling point and the Republic's neutral in favour of the US policy means that no questions are asked at the official level about the implied military cooperation. But, consistent with the Republic's zeal of the converted War on Smoking, the stopovers finally have become an issue -- because the US troops take advantage of their airport walkabout to smoke! Both the Irish Times and Oirish Independent have stories today (requiring either subscription or registration); here are the key elements of the Times story:

On at least six occasions [US] soldiers have been found crowding the airport toilets and claiming to be unaware of the smoking ban. However, smoking has not been allowed in that area of the airport for many years...

Aer Rianta [airport authority] has declined to confirm or deny that the smoking ban is being breached at Shannon, and has refused to answer questions regarding the reported infringements...
[airport police:] "We have to try and locate the source of the [smoke alarm] activation, and until we have done that we don't know whether it is a fire or a false alarm. And if we can't locate the source within 10 minutes, and the system is not reset, the building must be evacuated"

Could this be what finally tips the apathetic Irish public against the Iraq war?