Censorship of Publications Board (Ireland)
Encyclopedia
The Censorship of Publications Board is an independent board established by the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929 to examine book
s and periodicals
that are for sale in the Republic of Ireland
. It is governed by the Censorship of Publications Acts of 1929, 1946 and 1967. The Board has the authority to prohibit any book or periodical that they find to be obscene
. This makes it illegal to buy, sell or distribute that publication in the Republic of Ireland. The Board prohibited a large number of publications in the past, including books by respected authors. However, since the 1990s it does not prohibit publications very often.
stated in Dáil Éireann
that the existing censorship laws were sufficient to deal with the sale and distribution of obscene literature and that it was not the State's duty to decide what was proper for the Irish public to read. The public disagreed with this, however, and public pressure caused O'Higgins to appoint a Committee on Evil Literature
to discover whether it was necessary to extend the government's existing censorship powers so that public morality
could be safeguarded.
The Committee, initially consisting of a professor of English literature
, two members of parliament, a Church of Ireland
clergy
man and a Roman Catholic
priest
heard submissions from individuals, organisations and institutions, including religious and social institutions. Its report, which expressed dissatisfaction with the existing laws, was presented its report to the minister on 28 December 1926. One problem was that the vast majority of the publishers of offensive material operated outside Ireland, leaving only individual booksellers and distributors liable to prosecution. Their prosecution did not have any real impact on the availability of objectionable material. Another problem was that powers of customs and postal authorities to seize this material was ill-defined and seizure was thus ineffectual. The Committee concluded that it was the Irish state's duty to prevent the circulation of publications that were considered to be obscene and morally corrupting. The Committee proposed the introduction of new legislation and the establishment of a censorship board to advise the minister on which publications should be prohibited. The new legislation — the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929 — established the Censorship of Publications Board.
The Censorship of Publications Board and the Censorship of Publications Appeal Board have five members each. The current Board lasts for five years and its members' term of office will expire in November 2006. None of the members are paid for their services. The members of both boards are appointed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. However, both boards are independent authorities and no minister
has power over their decisions.
officer or by a member of the public. It can also examine any such publication on its own initiative. If the Board finds a certain publication to be obscene, it can be prohibited for a period of time. During this period any buying, selling or distribution of the publication in the Republic of Ireland is banned.
Every member of the board must read the publication in question before deciding whether to prohibit it. For a book to be prohibited, at least three members of the Board must agree with the decision and only one member can dissent. If a prohibition is passed, it comes into effect as soon as it is announced in Iris Oifigúil, Ireland's official State gazette.
A book can be prohibited by the Censorship of Publications Board if they consider it to be indecent or obscene. A periodical can be prohibited if it is considered to be frequently or usually indecent or obscene, or if the Board is of the opinion that an unduly large proportion of space in the periodical is given to matters related to crime. A book or periodical may also be prohibited if the Board considers that they advocate abortion
or ways of carrying out abortions. Most of the publications considered by the Board have been reported because of obscenity. When considering a book, the Board measures its literary, scientific and historical merit and takes note of its general tenor, the language in which it is written and its likely circulation and audience.
A prohibition order on a book lasts for a period of twelve years. A first prohibition order on a periodical is for a period of three, six or twelve months, depending on how often it is published. A second or subsequent prohibition order on a periodical causes it to be permanently banned. A prohibition order can be appealed against by the author
, editor
or publisher
of the book, the publisher of the periodical or by any five members of the Oireachtas
. A person convicted of possessing prohibited publications is liable for a fine of €
63.49 or six months imprisonment.
A main aim of the new legislation was to prevent the introduction of unwholesome foreign influences like materialism
, consumerism
and immorality
from abroad. Specifically, this meant works that were considered to be indecent or obscene, newspapers whose content relied too much on crime, and works that promoted the "unnatural" prevention of conception or that advocated abortion
. Irish writers who were found offensive were officially regarded as agents of decadence and social disintegration
who were striking at the roots of family life and moral decency. For example, Father P.J. Gannon thought that the Act was 'but a simple measure of moral hygiene, forced upon the Irish public by a veritable spate of filth never surpassed'. He thought that all literature must provide 'noble ground for noble emotion'. President
Éamon de Valera
felt that the arts in Ireland were to be encouraged when they observed the 'holiest traditions', but should be censored when they failed to live up to this ideal.
Although the new laws were typical of censorship laws in many other countries in the 1920s and 1930s, they were implemented with an eagerness which gradually alienated and embittered many Irish writers. It caused some writers to leave the country. The author Mervyn Wall
explains that during the 1930s there was 'a general intolerant attitude to writing, painting and sculpture. These were thought dangerous, likely to corrupt faith and morals...One encountered frequently among ordinary people bitter hostility to writers...Obscurantism had settled on the country like a fog, so of course anyone who had eyes to see and the heart to feel, was rebellious.' The Academy of Letters established by William Butler Yeats
attempted to fight censorship with solidarity among writers, but it achieved little in this field. The fight against literary censorship was fought mainly by isolated figures. Seán Ó Faoláin
, perhaps the most vociferous critic of the censorship laws, wrote: 'Our Censorship...tries to keep the mind in a state of perpetual adolescence in the midst of all the influences that must, in spite of it, pour in from the adult world.'
Among the first 13 books to be banned (announced in the Iris Oifigúil, in May 1930) were Point Counter Point
by Aldous Huxley
, The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall
and several books on sex and marriage by Margaret Sanger
and Marie Stopes
. Surprisingly, none of James Joyce's
writings were ever banned by the Board, while copies of his works were burnt by the British Customs, and Ulysses
was banned in the U.S.A. for several years.
contained provisions for the censorship of newspapers and periodicals during World War II
.
' book The Tailor and Ansty
was banned by the Board. The book was a collection of stories and sayings from an old country tailor called Timothy Buckley and his wife Anastasia that the author had recorded. Although they were exactly the type of Irish people romanticised by de Valera, their real-life language was too broad and racy for the Censorship Board. After the book was banned, three priests forced Buckely to go on his knees and burn the book in his own fireplace.
In November 1942 there was an important debate about the censorship system in the Oireachtas. Sir John Keane moved that the Censorship Board be reconstituted. Three banned publications in particular were debated. Sir John Keane was against their censorship, while Professor William Magennis
was in favour. Keane read passages from The Tailor and Ansty. The Chairman of the Senate instructed that these passages were deleted from the public report of the debate.
The Censorship of Publications Act, 1946 made "further and better provision" for the censorship of publications. Periodicals that had a large amount of matter related to crime were able to be banned. The Act also established the Appeals Board. The first application made to the Appeals Board involved Bryan Merryman's Irish
book The Midnight Court, which had been translated into English by Frank O'Connor
. The appeal was dismissed without a hearing for the appealing parties.
Many important works of literature continued to be banned by the Board, including East of Eden by John Steinbeck
, The Heart of the Matter
by Graham Greene
and The African Queen
by C. S. Forester
. Other authors banned included Theodore Dreiser
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
, Robert Graves
, Ernest Hemingway
, D. H. Lawrence
, Wyndham Lewis
, Thomas Mann
, John Cowper Powys
, Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh
. Irish writers who were censored included Austin Clarke
, Benedict Kiely
, Edna O'Brien
, Kate O'Brien
, Frank O'Connor
and Seán Ó Faoláin
. In 1950, Robert Graves
described the Irish censorship laws as 'the fiercest literary censorship this side of the Iron Curtain
.'
, an autonomous body established by the government to promote, fund and advise the government on the arts, was created in 1951. It was initially headed by Father O'Sullivan, a Catholic priest. The Council took a strong anti-censorship stance and awarded innovative young artists, musicians and writers as winners of the Macaulay Prize, a fellowship, including Noel Sheridan, Seoirse Bodley
, Brian Friel
and John McGahern
.
McGahern was awarded the Macauley Prize for his first novel The Barracks. He took a year's leave of absence from his position as a teacher in a Dublin primary school to take up the fellowship. However, the Censorship Board banned his second novel The Dark because of its themes of parental and clerical child abuse in June 1965 and he was not allowed to resume his job. The 'McGahern case' became a cause célèbre
and was a significant factor in encouraging the Fianna Fáil
government to again amend the censorship law.
The Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State for the Termination of Pregnancies) Act, 1995 modified the 1929, 1946 and 1967 Acts to allow publications with information about "services provided outside the State for the termination of pregnancies". However, no publications that advocated or promoted abortions were permitted.
On 11 August 1999, the entertainment listings magazine In Dublin was banned for six months because it was found to 'have been usually or frequently indecent or obscene.' It was investigated after complaints from the public regarding advertisements in the magazine for brothel
s posing as health studios. However, the Board did not suggest that the magazine's publishers were aware that they were brothels.
The High Court lifted the ban, stating that its publishers should have been given the opportunity to state their case before the Board before the ban was implemented.
On 18 May 2006 Lee Dunne's novel Paddy Maguire is Dead, a semi-autobiographical novel about a writer's descent into alcoholism, was released in Ireland after being banned for thirty-four years. The book was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1972, but was banned in Ireland on its release because it was thought to be indecent and obscene. The next six of his novels were also banned, making Dunne the most banned author in Ireland. He was unable to get a new book released in Ireland until the late 1980s.
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s and periodicals
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
that are for sale in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. It is governed by the Censorship of Publications Acts of 1929, 1946 and 1967. The Board has the authority to prohibit any book or periodical that they find to be obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
. This makes it illegal to buy, sell or distribute that publication in the Republic of Ireland. The Board prohibited a large number of publications in the past, including books by respected authors. However, since the 1990s it does not prohibit publications very often.
Establishment of the Censorship of Publications Board
On 2 October 1925, the Minister for Justice, Kevin O'HigginsKevin O'Higgins
Kevin Christopher O'Higgins was an Irish politician who served as Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice. He was part of early nationalist Sinn Féin, before going on to become a prominent member of Cumann na nGaedheal. O'Higgins initiated the An Garda Síochána police force...
stated in Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
that the existing censorship laws were sufficient to deal with the sale and distribution of obscene literature and that it was not the State's duty to decide what was proper for the Irish public to read. The public disagreed with this, however, and public pressure caused O'Higgins to appoint a Committee on Evil Literature
Committee on Evil Literature
The Committee on Evil Literature was a committee set up by the Irish Free State's Department of Justice in 1926 to look into censorship of printed matter....
to discover whether it was necessary to extend the government's existing censorship powers so that public morality
Public morality
Public morality refers to moral and ethical standards enforced in a society, by law or police work or social pressure, and applied to public life, to the content of the media, and to conduct in public places...
could be safeguarded.
The Committee, initially consisting of a professor of English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, two members of parliament, a Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
man and a Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
heard submissions from individuals, organisations and institutions, including religious and social institutions. Its report, which expressed dissatisfaction with the existing laws, was presented its report to the minister on 28 December 1926. One problem was that the vast majority of the publishers of offensive material operated outside Ireland, leaving only individual booksellers and distributors liable to prosecution. Their prosecution did not have any real impact on the availability of objectionable material. Another problem was that powers of customs and postal authorities to seize this material was ill-defined and seizure was thus ineffectual. The Committee concluded that it was the Irish state's duty to prevent the circulation of publications that were considered to be obscene and morally corrupting. The Committee proposed the introduction of new legislation and the establishment of a censorship board to advise the minister on which publications should be prohibited. The new legislation — the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929 — established the Censorship of Publications Board.
Role and makeup of the Censorship of Publications Board
The Censorship of Publications Board can examine any book or periodical that is for sale in the Republic of Ireland. A publication found to be obscene can be prohibited, making its buying, selling or distribution in Ireland illegal. A prohibition can be appealed to the Censorship of Publications Appeal Board.The Censorship of Publications Board and the Censorship of Publications Appeal Board have five members each. The current Board lasts for five years and its members' term of office will expire in November 2006. None of the members are paid for their services. The members of both boards are appointed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. However, both boards are independent authorities and no minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
has power over their decisions.
Rules of the Censorship of Publications Board
The Censorship of Publications Board examines any book or periodical referred to it by a Customs and ExciseCustoms and Excise
Customs and Excise refers to customs duty and excise duty.In certain countries, the national tax authorities that are responsible for collecting those duties are named Customs and Excise, including:...
officer or by a member of the public. It can also examine any such publication on its own initiative. If the Board finds a certain publication to be obscene, it can be prohibited for a period of time. During this period any buying, selling or distribution of the publication in the Republic of Ireland is banned.
Every member of the board must read the publication in question before deciding whether to prohibit it. For a book to be prohibited, at least three members of the Board must agree with the decision and only one member can dissent. If a prohibition is passed, it comes into effect as soon as it is announced in Iris Oifigúil, Ireland's official State gazette.
A book can be prohibited by the Censorship of Publications Board if they consider it to be indecent or obscene. A periodical can be prohibited if it is considered to be frequently or usually indecent or obscene, or if the Board is of the opinion that an unduly large proportion of space in the periodical is given to matters related to crime. A book or periodical may also be prohibited if the Board considers that they advocate abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
or ways of carrying out abortions. Most of the publications considered by the Board have been reported because of obscenity. When considering a book, the Board measures its literary, scientific and historical merit and takes note of its general tenor, the language in which it is written and its likely circulation and audience.
A prohibition order on a book lasts for a period of twelve years. A first prohibition order on a periodical is for a period of three, six or twelve months, depending on how often it is published. A second or subsequent prohibition order on a periodical causes it to be permanently banned. A prohibition order can be appealed against by the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
or publisher
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
of the book, the publisher of the periodical or by any five members of the Oireachtas
Oireachtas
The Oireachtas , sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...
. A person convicted of possessing prohibited publications is liable for a fine of €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
63.49 or six months imprisonment.
Censorship of Publications Act, 1929
The laws enacted by the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929 were introduced in an era of political isolationism and cultural and economic protectionism. Ireland's culture was very moral and religious. Catholicism — the religion of 93% of the population — was the fundamental philosophy behind the censorship laws.A main aim of the new legislation was to prevent the introduction of unwholesome foreign influences like materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
, consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
and immorality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
from abroad. Specifically, this meant works that were considered to be indecent or obscene, newspapers whose content relied too much on crime, and works that promoted the "unnatural" prevention of conception or that advocated abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. Irish writers who were found offensive were officially regarded as agents of decadence and social disintegration
Social disintegration
Social disintegration is the tendency for society to decline or disintegrate over time, perhaps due to the lapse or breakdown of traditional social support systems. In this context, "society" refers to the social order which maintains a society, rather than the political order that defines its...
who were striking at the roots of family life and moral decency. For example, Father P.J. Gannon thought that the Act was 'but a simple measure of moral hygiene, forced upon the Irish public by a veritable spate of filth never surpassed'. He thought that all literature must provide 'noble ground for noble emotion'. President
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
felt that the arts in Ireland were to be encouraged when they observed the 'holiest traditions', but should be censored when they failed to live up to this ideal.
Although the new laws were typical of censorship laws in many other countries in the 1920s and 1930s, they were implemented with an eagerness which gradually alienated and embittered many Irish writers. It caused some writers to leave the country. The author Mervyn Wall
Mervyn Wall
Mervyn Wall is an Irish writer who was born in Dublin. Wall attended Belvedere College and worked as a civil servant. His wife, Frances Feehan, was a music critic....
explains that during the 1930s there was 'a general intolerant attitude to writing, painting and sculpture. These were thought dangerous, likely to corrupt faith and morals...One encountered frequently among ordinary people bitter hostility to writers...Obscurantism had settled on the country like a fog, so of course anyone who had eyes to see and the heart to feel, was rebellious.' The Academy of Letters established by William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
attempted to fight censorship with solidarity among writers, but it achieved little in this field. The fight against literary censorship was fought mainly by isolated figures. Seán Ó Faoláin
Seán Ó Faoláin
Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin was an Irish short story writer. He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1986.Born as John Francis Whelan in Cork City, County Cork, Ireland, Sean Ó Faoláin wrote his first stories in the 1920s. Through 90 stories, written over a period of 60 years, Ó Faoláin charts the...
, perhaps the most vociferous critic of the censorship laws, wrote: 'Our Censorship...tries to keep the mind in a state of perpetual adolescence in the midst of all the influences that must, in spite of it, pour in from the adult world.'
Among the first 13 books to be banned (announced in the Iris Oifigúil, in May 1930) were Point Counter Point
Point Counter Point
Point Counter Point is a novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1928. It is Huxley's longest novel, and was notably more complex and serious than his earlier fiction....
by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" is apparent from an early age...
by Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
and several books on sex and marriage by Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...
and Marie Stopes
Marie Stopes
Marie Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control...
. Surprisingly, none of James Joyce's
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
writings were ever banned by the Board, while copies of his works were burnt by the British Customs, and Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
was banned in the U.S.A. for several years.
The Emergency Powers Act, 1939
The Emergency Powers Act, 1939Emergency Powers Act 1939
The Emergency Powers Act 1939 is an act of the Oireachtas enacted on 3 September 1939 after an official state of emergency had been declared on 2 September 1939...
contained provisions for the censorship of newspapers and periodicals during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The Censorship of Publications Act, 1946
In 1942 Eric CrossEric Cross (writer)
Eric Cross was an Irish writer born in Newry, County Down, Ireland.In 1942, he published The Tailor and Ansty, in The Bell, a collection of stories and sayings from an old country tailor called Timothy Buckley and his wife Anastasia that Cross had recorded, with a foreword by Frank O'Connor...
' book The Tailor and Ansty
The Tailor and Ansty
The Tailor and Ansty is a 1942 book by Eric Cross about the life of the Irish tailor and storyteller, Timothy Buckley, and his wife Anastasia Buckley...
was banned by the Board. The book was a collection of stories and sayings from an old country tailor called Timothy Buckley and his wife Anastasia that the author had recorded. Although they were exactly the type of Irish people romanticised by de Valera, their real-life language was too broad and racy for the Censorship Board. After the book was banned, three priests forced Buckely to go on his knees and burn the book in his own fireplace.
In November 1942 there was an important debate about the censorship system in the Oireachtas. Sir John Keane moved that the Censorship Board be reconstituted. Three banned publications in particular were debated. Sir John Keane was against their censorship, while Professor William Magennis
William Magennis
William Magennis was an Irish politician and university professor. Born in Belfast, he was educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, and University College Dublin. In 1893 he was called to the Bar...
was in favour. Keane read passages from The Tailor and Ansty. The Chairman of the Senate instructed that these passages were deleted from the public report of the debate.
The Censorship of Publications Act, 1946 made "further and better provision" for the censorship of publications. Periodicals that had a large amount of matter related to crime were able to be banned. The Act also established the Appeals Board. The first application made to the Appeals Board involved Bryan Merryman's Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
book The Midnight Court, which had been translated into English by Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor
Frank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
. The appeal was dismissed without a hearing for the appealing parties.
Many important works of literature continued to be banned by the Board, including East of Eden by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, The Heart of the Matter
The Heart of the Matter
The Heart of the Matter , a novel by the English author Graham Greene, won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. During World War II, Greene worked for the Secret Intelligence Service in Sierra Leone, the setting for his novel...
by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
and The African Queen
The African Queen (novel)
The African Queen is a 1935 novel written by C. S. Forester, which was adapted to the 1951 film with the same name.-Plot summary:The story opens in mid-1914. Rose Sayer, a 33-year-old English woman, is the companion and housekeeper of her brother Samuel, an Anglican missionary in Central Africa...
by C. S. Forester
C. S. Forester
Cecil Scott "C.S." Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of naval warfare. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen...
. Other authors banned included Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
, Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
, Wyndham Lewis
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
, Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
, John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys
-Biography:Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys , who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper. He came from a family of eleven children, many of whom were also...
, Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
. Irish writers who were censored included Austin Clarke
Austin Clarke
Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke, is a Canadian novelist, essayist and short story writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Born in St...
, Benedict Kiely
Benedict Kiely
Benedict "Ben" Kiely was an Irish author and broadcaster from Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland.-Early life:Benedict Kiely was born in Dromore, County Tyrone to Thomas John and Sara Alice Kiely. He was the youngest of six children, the others were Rita, Gerald, Eileen, Kathleen and Macartan; four of...
, Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
, Kate O'Brien
Kate O'Brien
Kate O'Brien , was an Irish novelist and playwright.-Biography:Kathleen "Kate" Mary Louie O'Brien was born in Limerick City at the end of the 19th century. Following the death of her mother when she was five, she became a boarder at Laurel Hill convent...
, Frank O'Connor
Frank O'Connor
Frank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
and Seán Ó Faoláin
Seán Ó Faoláin
Seán Proinsias Ó Faoláin was an Irish short story writer. He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1986.Born as John Francis Whelan in Cork City, County Cork, Ireland, Sean Ó Faoláin wrote his first stories in the 1920s. Through 90 stories, written over a period of 60 years, Ó Faoláin charts the...
. In 1950, Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
described the Irish censorship laws as 'the fiercest literary censorship this side of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
.'
The Arts Council
The Arts Council of IrelandArts Council of Ireland
The Arts Council of Ireland was founded in 1951 by the Government of Ireland to encourage interest in Irish art and channel to funding from the state to Irish artists and arts organisations...
, an autonomous body established by the government to promote, fund and advise the government on the arts, was created in 1951. It was initially headed by Father O'Sullivan, a Catholic priest. The Council took a strong anti-censorship stance and awarded innovative young artists, musicians and writers as winners of the Macaulay Prize, a fellowship, including Noel Sheridan, Seoirse Bodley
Seóirse Bodley
Seóirse Bodley is an Irish composer and former associate professor of music at University College Dublin . He has been Saoi of Aosdána since 2008.-Biography:...
, Brian Friel
Brian Friel
Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
and John McGahern
John McGahern
John McGahern was one of the most important Irish authors of the latter half of the twentieth century. Before his death in 2006 he was hailed as "the greatest living Irish novelist" by The Observer.-Life:...
.
McGahern was awarded the Macauley Prize for his first novel The Barracks. He took a year's leave of absence from his position as a teacher in a Dublin primary school to take up the fellowship. However, the Censorship Board banned his second novel The Dark because of its themes of parental and clerical child abuse in June 1965 and he was not allowed to resume his job. The 'McGahern case' became a cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
and was a significant factor in encouraging the Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
government to again amend the censorship law.
Censorship of Publications Act, 1967
Brian Lenihan, the Minister for Justice, sponsored the Censorship of Publications Act, 1967. This act limited the period of prohibition orders of books to twelve years (although books released after this period could be banned again by the Board). The act thus allowed the immediate sale of over 5,000 previously banned books.Amendments to the 1967 Act
In 1976, the Censorship of Publications Board banned the Irish Family Planning Association's booklet "Family Planning". The Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 deleted references to "the unnatural prevention of conception" in the 1929 and 1949 Acts, thus allowing publications with information about contraception to be distributed in Ireland.The Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State for the Termination of Pregnancies) Act, 1995 modified the 1929, 1946 and 1967 Acts to allow publications with information about "services provided outside the State for the termination of pregnancies". However, no publications that advocated or promoted abortions were permitted.
Current criticisms of the Censorship of Publications Board
The laws of the Censorship of Publications Act, 1967 remain even though the Irish social climate has greatly changed in the interim. Some current criticisms of the board include the fact that its meetings are held in secret, that all complaints must be considered by the board (for example, the Bible had to be considered when it was submitted in 1988), and that the board operates generally on the basis of standards and criteria that are vague and ill-defined in the legislation.On 11 August 1999, the entertainment listings magazine In Dublin was banned for six months because it was found to 'have been usually or frequently indecent or obscene.' It was investigated after complaints from the public regarding advertisements in the magazine for brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s posing as health studios. However, the Board did not suggest that the magazine's publishers were aware that they were brothels.
The High Court lifted the ban, stating that its publishers should have been given the opportunity to state their case before the Board before the ban was implemented.
On 18 May 2006 Lee Dunne's novel Paddy Maguire is Dead, a semi-autobiographical novel about a writer's descent into alcoholism, was released in Ireland after being banned for thirty-four years. The book was originally published in the United Kingdom in 1972, but was banned in Ireland on its release because it was thought to be indecent and obscene. The next six of his novels were also banned, making Dunne the most banned author in Ireland. He was unable to get a new book released in Ireland until the late 1980s.
External links
- Text of the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929.
- Text of the Censorship of Publications Act, 1946.
- Text of the Censorship of Publications Act, 1967.
- List of prohibited publications from 1993 - December 2003 (PDF file).
- "Censorship of publications in Ireland" at the Irish government website Oasis.
- "Tales out of School", an extract from Irish author John McGahern's autobiography Memoir recounting his experiences with the Irish Censorship of Publications Board.
- Irish author Frank O'Connor's view of the Censorship Board