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Before the Second World War, Mabou, Cape Breton, was known mostly for coal mining. More recently, it was celebrated as the home of the Rankin Family, the popular Celtic pop band.

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This week, the hamlet of about 1,000 has a fresh claim to fame: The smoking MacNeils.

On Friday a Sunwing flight to the Dominican Republic was forced to land in Bermuda, and three MacNeils arrested. David MacNeil Sr., 54, Darlene MacNeil, 52 and David MacNeil Jr., 22, allegedly tried to smoke on the plane, and then refused to cooperate with the flight staff. An entire planeload of vacationers spent a day dealing with the fallout.

The MacNeils, now banned from Sunwing, were to fly home Tuesday night, but their story already had an uninterrupted flight home.

“Oh, it’s certainly the talk of the town, that is for sure,” visitor Gordon MacIsaac told CTV News.

“Embarrassment is mostly the thing,” said Rankin Macdonald, editor of the Iverness Oran newspaper.