Why Do You Smoke? Cork City, Ireland 1968

The people of Cork talk about smoking and their attitudes to tobacco. Most people can recall taking their first puff of a cigarette and not liking it, although some tried harder than others to get hooked. One man remembers experimenting with turf mould in paper with a partner in crime, before they graduated onto the cheapest type of cigarettes available, eventually deciding that, Physical fitness had more to attraction for us, and we gave them up, and since then I’ve never smoked cigarettes, although I do enjoy a cigar from time to time. Another smoker who claims to have started at around age 10 did so, Because it was the thing to do, you know, be a real man doing this thing, but I must say I regret it, having ever started it. The price of cigarettes is most definitely a drain on the finances, although one older gentleman recalls a time when he was a child when they were cheap, At that time it was two pence for five Woodbines, often paid a penny for two and a half. Parental disapproval is also something most people experienced, although this man’s father objected particularly strongly to the news his son had been seen smoking, I did get a beating for smoking actually I remember on the first occasion which I was seen smoking, I had to run with my life. This report for ‘Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 9 May 1968. The reporter is Bill O’Herlihy.