1970s sweets trivia

Someone's just talked about Curly Wurly's being like Marathons. This is proof they're American because as every fule kno :) Marathons were what we are now told to call 'Snickers'.

Anyway :) the Wikipedia article linked to includes, with here as a reference, that 1970s Ireland banned several sweets, including the Curly Wurly:

.. In the years leading up to 1979, people came back from England with three commodities that were unavailable in Ireland - porn magazines, condoms and, believe it or not, illicit sweets.

The list of banned sweets in Ireland included Curly Wurly, Twix, Toblerone and (my personal favourite at the time, for some bizarre reason) Opal Fruits. Those of us living on the east coast had to endure the torture of UTV and HTV beaming smiling British kids into our living rooms, their mouths stuffed with banned goodies and declaring: "Opal Fruits - made to make your mouth water".

In the real world,we had to make do with Irish Macaroon bars. In 1979, the fatwa on Curly Wurly and Opal Fruits was lifted, leading to an explosion of choice, E numbers and, subsequently, a marked rise in diabetes.

There are some comments disputing this, but some of you were there at the time - is this true or, as I suspect, crap?