Censored

Interview With A Censor feat. John Kelleher Jun 26, 2024

In our last (for now) episode, we chat to John Kelleher who was appointed Irish film censor in 2003. When he left in 2009, the Irish Film Censor's Office had been renamed the Irish Film Classification Office, a reform that reflected how it had become, as John says 'more guide dog than guard dog'.

Until the pod returns, thanks to everyone for listening!

A & LM xx

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Transparent Classification Jun 06, 2024

Censors have been replaced by classifiers, opaque silence by annual reports. We read recent annual reports from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) to see how those offices work in a digital media age, and to see what the (complaining) public thinks of their role.

Films mentioned

Minions: the Rise of Gru

Ghostbusters

Watership Down

Bambi

Star Trek the Motion Picture

Nutcracker (by Matthew Bourne)

The Batman

Batman Returns

A Man Called Otto

The Banshees of Inisherin

Saltburn

Cocaine Bear

Benedetta

BBFC 2022 Annual Report

IFCO published reports

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Abject Grace: Bad Lieutenant (1992) feat. Rob Doyle May 23, 2024

This remarkable neo-noir, directed by Abel Ferrara, has never been certified by the Irish Film Classification Office (the new name for the censor’s office). Aoife and Lloyd Meadhbh are joined by author Rob Doyle to discuss how Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund, with backgrounds in porno sleaze, made a sincere film about redemption, and forgiveness.

Bad Lieutenant dir. Abel Ferrara, starring Harvey Keitel

Rob Doyle

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Staging violence: The Wild Bunch (1969) May 02, 2024

In Sam Peckinpah’s film, standard Western tropes – outlaws, heroes, beautiful landscape – are used to interrogate an exhausted genre. He knows spectacular gunfights are problematic but did the cut version shown in Ireland convey Peckinpah’s intent?

The Wild Bunch, dir Sam Peckinpah, starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine

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A Celluloid Nasty: Peeping Tom (1960) Apr 18, 2024

One of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films and guess what? We agree, it’s brilliant. Contemporary audiences detested it, preferring to ignore why they derived pleasure from realistic, filmed torture and terror. This film has everything from Freudianism to a Hitchcock doppelganger. Cuts made by censors might be lost forever but it still shocks and gives us a perfect amount of ick.

Peeping Tom (1960) dir. Michael Powell, starring Karlheinz Boehm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer

Psycho (1960) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh.

The Red Shoes (1948) dir. Powell and Pressburger, starring Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer.

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And, Merch

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Anti-natal: Rosemary's Baby (1968) Apr 04, 2024

A horror fan (Lloyd Meadhbh) and not-a-horror fan (Aoife) agree that this unexpectedly feminist film did not deserve to be banned twice in Ireland. Caveat: Roman Polanski directed it.

Rosemary’s Baby (dir. Roman Polanski) starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes

Merch!

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The Full Gere: American Gigolo (1980) Mar 21, 2024

Ties, suits and sex - Paul Schrader's exploration of consumerism and Richard Gere's hotness was pruned of bad language and "sex scenes" by the Irish censor.

American Gigolo (1980, dir. Paul Schrader) starring Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Bill Duke, Hector Elizondo

You Must Remember This on American Gigolo

More on Aoife's Gere-athon for Patreon supporters

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Video Nasties (Part Two) Mar 07, 2024

What’s the worst celluloid crime committed in The Evil Dead: excessive violence or Bruce Campbell’s fringe? Lloyd Meadhbh (a fan) tries to persuade Aoife (a sceptic) to embrace this video-nasty classic. Also, listener correspondence on The Rocky Road to Dublin.

The Evil Dead (dir. Sam Rami, 1981) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_8_nm_0_q_evil%2520dead

Evil Dead II (dir. Sam Rami, 1987) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_7_tt_8_nm_0_q_evil%2520dead%2520

Weird Studies Podcast on ‘Evil Dead II’ https://www.weirdstudies.com/136

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Video Nasties (Part One) Feb 22, 2024

Lloyd Meadhbh rewinds the tape back to the 1980s, when a new film medium caused a new (ish) moral panic.

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The Rocky Road to Dublin (1967) Feb 01, 2024

How revolutionary was Ireland anyway? Journalist and director Peter Lennon asked how a nation birthed by rebels seemed to be run by Catholic priests. His caustic script allied to Raoul Coutard's captivating cinematography made for a unique documentary. We discuss odd accents, cheeky children and creepy priests.

The Rocky Road to Dublin (1967, re-released by IFI in 2004) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66JpC_T3wFM

Merch

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Censorship by Sharpie Dec 28, 2023

Did you know DIY censorship was practiced by those outside the film censor’s office. Even after official censors vetted publicity material, some film posters showed too much skin, especially male arms and legs.

Liam O’Leary collected this material

Kevin Rockett Irish Film Censorship: a cultural journey from silent cinema to internet pornography (2004)

Doctored film posters can be seen here

Original, undoctored film posters:

The Virgin Soldiers (1969) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065182/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The Hustler (1961) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054997/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520hust

Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066016/

From Here to Eternity (1953) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045793/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_from%2520here

The Chastity Belt/On My Way To The Crusades I Met A Girl Who (1967) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0064167/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_4_nm_4_q_chastity%2520belt

A Cold Wind in August (1961) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0054755/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Merch

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The Devils is not a film for everyone Dec 14, 2023

Ken Russell's The Devils is definitely a film for us. Satanism, orgies, exorcisms - what's not to love? And it's a complicated censorship story of different cuts for different censors.

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Are you trying to censor me, Mrs Robinson? Nov 30, 2023

Banned, appealed, cut eleven times: The Graduate (1967) had a torrid time in Ireland. What narrative were Irish audiences allowed to see? And, Mrs Robinson, we stan.

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(Un) Willkommen to the Cabaret Nov 16, 2023

A film beloved by our hosts that proved too much for the Irish censor. Was it Liza Minnelli's (as Sally Bowles) legs or men fancying other men? The answer is quite surprising. But then, so is writing a musical about genocide.

Cabaret (dir. Bob Fosse, 1972)

Merch!

Help keep the show on the road (Over 18s only because 'smut' is censored)

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Ulster Says No, Absolutely Not Nov 02, 2023

Lloyd Meadhbh explains Northern Ireland’s special censorship sauce to Aoife. There’s cross-border agreement, even more censors than usual and a bit of flogging.

Films:

Ulster the Garden of Eden (1930), tourist authority of NI

Frankenstein (1931, dir James Whale)

Ourselves Alone (1936, dir Brian Desmond Hurst, Walter Summers) Released in the US as Rivers of Unrest https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028071/

The Informer (1935, dir John Ford)

Merch!

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Don't mention the war Oct 19, 2023

War brings propaganda, and that means censorship. What happens if war is denied in favour of an 'Emergency'?

We unpick why Betty Grable's legs were withdrawn from Irish cinema screens in 1941.

A Yank in the RAF (1941, dir. Henry King) starring Betting Grable, Tyrone Power and John Sutton

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An Underground Film Scene Oct 05, 2023

Aoife's working title was 'Wildcard' – we went on a journey through vice-ridden streets (and garages) of Dublin city in 1954.

Films:

Smart Alec (1951) US 'stag' film starring Candy Barr

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Blasphemy! Sep 21, 2023

How did the Irish censor feel about Biblical epics? And how could a convent have ‘a sex atmosphere’?

Where we discuss Mary Magdalene’s gold bikini and dangerously smouldering Englishmen. But also, Elvis.

Films:

King of Kings (Cecil B. deMille, 1927)
Black Narcissus (Powell and Pressburger, 1947)
Flaming Star (Don Siegel, 1960)

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Merch

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It Girls: Clara Bow and Mae West Sep 07, 2023

We investigate ‘It’, a type of sex appeal that raised the temperatures of cinema goers and censors in the 1930s. ‘It’ was personified in the screen personas of Clara Bow and Mae West but did you know that tigers and Derry also have ‘It’?

‘It’ (1927) directed by Clarence G Badger and Josef von Sternberg, starring Clara Bow and Antonio Moreno

‘She Done Him Wrong’ (1933) dir. Lowell Sherman, starring Mae West and Cary Grant.

‘I’m No Angel’ (1933) dir. Wesley Ruggless, starring Mae West and Cary Grant.

It girls, 2000s iteration

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Caught in the Act Jul 16, 2023

Film censorship in Ireland is a hundred years old today. What were Irish cinema goers watching in 1923, and what would the Censor keep them from watching in the future? Find out in this bumper birthday episode.

· Discover which elderly TD was the most avid cinema goer in parliament.

· Find out why soft carpets were an issue for one Deputy Film Censor.

· Learn how the Mothers’ Union compared cinema to demonic possession.

· Welcome our new ‘Censorship Bingo’ card: the ‘Don’ts’ and ‘Be Carefuls’ list.

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Sadism: Michael Arlen, ‘Hell! Said the Duchess’ (1934) Jul 06, 2023

Why would Irish censors object to a satire of the English upper-classes? They probably wouldn’t but Arlen wrote something far creepier. With Dr Laura Ludtke.

He's merciless on the role of sport in creating Englishman. Aoife Bhreatnach
I have to admit, the introduction of Mosley as the Minister of War in a fascist conservative coalition government led by Winston Churchill did throw me for a bit. Laura Ludtke
To use the narrator's own terms, there is something damn queer about the case. Laura Ludtke
These are powerful mammaries. Aoife Bhreatnach

Laura's podcast

Laura's previous turn on this pod

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Gritty: Richard Wright 'Black Boy' (1945) Jun 22, 2023

There’s lots of indecency in this memoir – vile racism, horrific violence – but readers shouldn’t be protected from Wright’s rage and bitterness.

On the floor of the US senate, a Theodore Bilbo said "It is the dirtiest, filthiest, lousiest, most obscene piece of writing that I have ever seen in print.”
Wright’s memoir is emotionally and narratively like many published in the last 20 years.
And the Irish weren’t the only ones who’ve struggled with this book – this text has an epic history of censorship

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Supreme Court case featuring 'Black Boy'

Richard Wright

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Filthy Films: a Teaser Jun 16, 2023

What do you do when you’ve read a lot of smutty books? Watch dirty films, of course. This season is about films that annoyed the censors. And, to double your fun, there are now two hosts: Aoife Bhreatnach and Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston. Here’s a taste of what to expect from us.

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Libellous: what is indecency? Jun 08, 2023

When Patrick Mulloy, author of Jackets Green, heard his book was banned he did something unusual – he sued for libel. But why was this censorship trial held in London? This is a true crime special, but with banned books instead of dead bodies.

Read about the violent 1920s here https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/ireland-1922/

Síobhra Aiken, Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (2022)

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Teasing: Mae West 'She Done Him Wrong' (1932) May 25, 2023

Mae West is remembered for her cracking one-liners but she was a helluva writer too. Guest: Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide.

Her sexual persona that she creates in the film She Done Him Wrong means the Irish censors interpret this book as essentially indecent. Aoife Bhreatnach
One of the things West seems to thinking about in the novel is: how do you replace that immediate kind of visual vivid iconography with a kind of a linguistic equivalent? Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide
It’s really quite a vivid rendering of a particularly ugly, corrupt world in which both crime, politics, money, and sex and alcohol are all very deeply intertwined. Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide

Muireann’s previous censored appearance

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Radical: Ethel Mannin 'Confessions and Impressions' (1930) May 11, 2023

A prolific novelist and memoirist, Ethel Mannin cleverly smuggled lots of controversial ideas into this best-selling autobiography.

Freud’s influence on Mannin is clear at various points in the book because she is deeply interested in childhood as a political and cultural idea.
Her chapters on schooling are very focused on telling readers about the vulnerability of children to scolding, humiliation and physical violence.
She told her school teacher that her flag was the red flag – an incendiary statement if ever there was one.

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Sensational: Roberta Cowell's Story, by herself (1954) Apr 27, 2023

Written by a woman (and her ghost writer) hiding in an Italian villa to escape the paparazzi, this is a short, sometimes shocking memoir.

This is a type of celebrity memoir, a text written by someone in the eye of a media storm.
The relationship between homosexuality and heterosexuality creates a lot of anxiety for Roberta.
What really jars with me, a reader in 2023, is the biological argument Roberta makes.

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Intimate: Reitman 'Sister of the Road' (1937) Apr 13, 2023

Let Box-Car Bertha show you the American underworld, where the homeless and rootless struggle to survive. An uncensored story that, unsurprisingly, was censored.

In the publishing landscape of the mid 20th century, uncensored obviously means salaciousness but also a type of honesty that is tough and uncompromising.
Bertha’s mother believes in ‘free love’ a phrase I thought originated in the 1960s but obviously dates from much earlier.
The stories of hundreds of poor individuals appear here – all sorted by name, gender, occupation, ethnicity and ‘type’.

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Dot, Dot, Dot: Anon., WAAC: the Woman's Story of the War (1930) Mar 30, 2023

One of many books about the First World War on the censor’s blacklist, this one claims to offer a new, fresh perspective about the British army. But how much truth can a memoir written by ‘anonymous’ tell? With Dr Andrew Frayn.

For a novel that's meant to be from a women's point of view, it's often very uncharitable about them. Andrew Frayn
People are walked up to the door of the bedroom, told it is a bedroom, and then left to imagine for themselves. Aoife Bhreatnach
It's a generic novel at a moment when this kind of war book is becoming generic. Andrew Frayn

Andrew Frayn & Fiona Houston, The War Books Boom in Britain

‘WAAC: the Woman’s Story of the War’ (1930)

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Gunning for you: Frank Harris 'My Life and Loves' (1922) Mar 16, 2023

Written by an old man reflecting on his life in sex, this notorious memoir was banned almost everywhere.

It’s nice to know I’m not the imagined reader of this book – wrong gender, wrong gonads
Harris thinks pandering to girl readers stripped English literature of its earthy Shakespearean soul
His curious yoking together of philosophy and porn isn’t always successful

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Frank Harris, ‘My Life and Loves, Volume One’ (1922)

Frank Harris

Previous episodes mentioned here:

The Memoirs of Dolly Morton

The Lustful Turk

Exchange and Mart

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Skeptical: Sean O'Casey 'I Knock at the Door' (1939) Mar 02, 2023

What happens when an Irishman whose dramas offended audiences writes an autobiography? The state censors ban it.

One censor asked: are you going to allow the truth to be told about everything to everyone without qualification and at all times?
On a practical level, reading O’Casey’s memoir like a censor is not easy.
Obviously Catholic censors don’t approve of Protestants – they were all apostates and heretics, on a fast train to hell – but they didn’t like anti-clericalism either.

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Subterfuge: Exchange and Mart magazine (1930) Feb 02, 2023

A deep dive into the wonderful world of classified advertisements. You could buy nearly anything through Exchange and Mart: dogs, chickens, clothing. But if you look very closely, you can see why the censors decided it was ‘habitually and frequently indecent’.

Without the post, E&M would never have existed – it was a business built on stamps and letters
To avoid being prosecuted for obscenity, advertisers developed a whole language of euphemism to sell contraceptives
What I love about classified ads is the mix of boring and ambiguous within them
Selling birth control devices in Britain: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2020/09/08/something-for-the-weekend-sir-buying-and-selling-condoms-in-britain/
Fetishes in the small ads: https://www.cuirmale.nl/history/meeting.htm

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Genius: Isadora Duncan 'My Life' (1927) Jan 19, 2023

Isadora Duncan was an artist who lived (and died) in an extraordinary manner. Her autobiography tells how she conceived a radical dance manifesto while partying across Europe.

This memoir sold extremely well in America, being reprinted 9 times in 10 months
A lot of this book reads like a society gossip column.
Duncan can’t help being political: everything she sees about her life and women’s lives is politics to her.

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Propaganda: Bösche ‘Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin’ (1983) Jan 05, 2023

Why did a children’s picture book provoke new form of censorship in Britain?

Danish attitudes to children produced books that upset other European cultures.
Before Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin was published in 1983, a member of parliament called Geoffrey Dickens called bookshops to boycott it.
In 1988, a co-operative in Cork city called the Quay Co-Cop ran a bookshop that stocked what they said was the ‘most comprehensive and up-to-date selection of lesbian and gay titles in Ireland’.

Queer Ephemera:

https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/jenny-lives-with-eric-and-martin-a-special/id1488294070?i=1000464529828

A Different Country (RTÉ, 11 June 2021) https://www.rte.ie/player/movie/a-different-country/207293480017

Pages from the book here:

https://www.gayinthe80s.com/2012/06/1983-book-jenny-lives-with-eric-and-martin/

https://corklgbtarchive.com/

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Nudity: Health and Efficiency magazine (1933) Dec 15, 2022

For the first time on the podcast, it’s a publication that’s still banned in Ireland! According to Register of Prohibited Publications, Health and Efficiency is ‘unwholesome literature’. Naturally, we want to know precisely how this magazine is corrupting and degrading its readers. With Prof Annebella Pollen.

Here’s today's 'blacklist'

Annebella Pollen, Nudism in a Cold Climate: the Visual Culture of Naturists in Mid-20th Century Britain (2021)

Annebella’s article in Health and Efficiency

Throughout the thirties in Britain, when Nudism was becoming more acceptable and even fashionable, there was a boom in nudist magazines and Health and Efficiency was one of the most popular. Annebella Pollen

This magazine was being sold to people who were enjoying looking at other people's bodies rather than rejoicing in the perfection of their own. Aoife Bhreatnach

You've given me an ambition to go to the British Library and sit in the naughty section. Aoife Bhreatnach

In Health and Efficiency magazine and other kind of naturist publications from the 1920s through to about 1970, they had really restrictive laws in Britain about what body parts could be shown and how. Annebella Pollen

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Seedy: Greene 'Stamboul Train' (1932) Nov 24, 2022

A train that could whisk its passengers across borders and into each other’s arms was definitely too dangerous for the censors. With Juliette Breton.

There's something quite erotic and tempting about travel, the possibility that you can go anywhere, but also you can meet anyone. Juliette Breton
So many thriller/adventure/spy novels from the period use trains as a kind of way of getting into the action. Juliette Breton
The train is like the boat going across the River Styx – everyone gets on it eventually. Aoife Bhreatnach

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Primitives: Macken, ‘Quench the Moon’ (1948) Nov 10, 2022

When Walter Macken dedicated his first novel to his Mammy, Agnes, he did not expect the censors to declare it ‘obscene’. How does a social-problem novel by a good Catholic offend the official arbiters of taste?

Illegitimacy and pre martial sex are central themes and key plot devices.
It's not as full throated an exploration of the relationship between man and sheep as you might expect.
Macken went deep into our souls without us really noticing.

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Seconal Days: Valley of the Dolls (1966) Oct 27, 2022

Hailed as ‘Dirty Book of the Month’ by Time in 1966, this novel was an instant bestseller. But not in Ireland, where it was illegal to sell it between 1967 and 1979. What does this classic of women’s fiction have to say about feminism, sex and medicine? With Dr Cara Rodway.

I think one of the reasons it was so successful is that it has a wonderful curtain twitching element: who are the real celebrities that it’s based on? Cara Rodway
The first film has been somewhat resurrected in later years as a sort of camp classic. Cara Rodway
I think cultural phenomena like ‘Sex in the City’ owe a lot to this novel and the narrative it created around women, friendship and work. Aoife Bhreatnach
The image through the 70s and particularly in the 80s of the female bunk buster author - that definitely owes a lot to Jacqueline Susann and her success. Cara Rodway

Films adaptations of the novel:

Valley of the Dolls (1967, dir. Mark Robson)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970, dir. Russ Meyer)

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Seductive: Gibbons 'Nightingale Wood' (1938) Oct 13, 2022

This is the first banned book I’ve read that features both a foot fetish and communism. Gibbons writes satire so entrancing it’s can be hard to spot the filth but if the censors could do it, so could we. Or maybe the bewitching Englishness of the novel was too dangerous? With Dr Laura Ludtke.

The novel induced that certain sweet boredom you get from reading a slow book where you look up and realize the world has moved on. Aoife Bhreatnach
The names are so indicative in a very Dickensian and maybe even Austenian way. Laura Ludtke
It's written from a very self-conscious readerly perspective. Aoife Bhreatnach
You don’t call someone you’re trying to seduce, or maybe you do, Dad. Laura Ludtke
I think the whole novel is driving the conflict between occlusion and transparency. Laura Ludtke

Dr Laura Ludtke’s LitSci podcast

Previous Censored episodes that link to this novel: Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm (1932), Powys, 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (1927)

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Thrilling: True Detective Mysteries Sep 29, 2022

Hundreds of magazine titles were banned by the Irish censor. This true-crime periodical, full of murder and gangsterism, couldn’t avoid being banned for discussing crime. But advertising ‘daring’ and ‘frank’ books didn’t help either.

The exuberant rampant Americanness of this magazine is what really struck me.
The law also banned court reports on ‘any indecent matter the publication of which would be calculated to injure public morals’.
You can see the roots of contemporary true crime in this one edition.

The edition read for this episode is June 1930 https://archive.org/details/TrueDetectiveJune1930/mode/2up?view=theater

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Lust: Maura Laverty 'Alone We Embark' (1942) Sep 15, 2022

When Maura Laverty gently pointed out that Irish villages simmered with perverted lust, her novel was immediately censored. Or maybe it was her pointed criticism of the state that offended the censors.

If an author can please an Irish audience with a book called ‘darlin’ by the British, she must be doing something special.
This is a chilling depiction of poverty and old age in the new County Homes, where the new republic has made no difference at all.
This is all very soap opera - Laverty actually wrote a TV soap called Tolka Row in the 1960s.

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Evil Literature: languages of censorship Aug 18, 2022

The pro-censorship lobby produced a rich and often hilarious polemic. Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston joins me to talk effluent, tainted minds and ‘race suicide’. We also debate whether censorship was more of a moral panic than a conspiracy theory.

Alongside the priests, there are a lot of politicians in these debates where they use rhetoric of censorship to express profound and disturbed Anglophobia. Aoife Bhreatnach
D.P. Moran would have thrived in today’s internet culture, he would have been the king of Twitter. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
If you are looking for filth in everything you read, you will find filth. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
Watching Irish politicians figure out who to blame for venereal disease after the British garrison has gone is so funny. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston

Browse censorship debates online https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/find/?debateType=dail

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The Bishop and the Nightie (1966): censure in televison Jul 14, 2022

The most memorable scandals in Irish life feature a fulminating bishop and this is no exception. This brief controversy is infamous but why do we find it so compelling? Dr Morgan Wait joins me to talk about television and titillation in 1960s Ireland.

Anything that doesn’t feature Gay Byrne is going to get considerably less attention. Morgan Wait

When people recognise themselves, or suspect they recognise themselves, they get cross and ask for changes. Aoife Bhreatnach

One of the biggest letter writing incidents was around ‘Home Truths’ and it had nothing to do with censorship. Morgan Wait

If the ‘Late Late Show’ was introducing sex to audiences, it was to people who were already having it. Aoife Bhreatnach

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Playing politics: censure in theatres Jun 16, 2022

Theatre riots might capture the imagination but audiences, critics and authority figures shape theatre in other less dramatic ways. Guest Dr Barry Houlihan talks about his new book Theatre and archival memory: Irish drama and marginalised histories 1951-77 (2022)

· Reading a banned book is a private thing while theatre-going is a public political act.

· Theatre is a way of dismantling the mechanics of the state and church.

· Theatres are institutions in their own way – they can have set audiences that they cater for and don’t want to lose.

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Morally healthy: censure in libraries Jun 02, 2022

When tax payers pay for libraries, librarians have a duty to ‘the public’. Defining that public isn’t easy, especially when priests, pressure groups and politicians get involved.

· Being an arbiter of taste and decency was a tough job and nobody appreciated it.

· The censorship mentality was still deeply embedded in a prudish and hypocritical society

· He proceeded to tear up the books, pile them on the floor, take out a bottle of paraffin and a box of matches from his pocket.

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Indecent images: Harry Clarke and Georges Rouault May 19, 2022

Moving pictures (de filums) were heavily censored but the state didn’t officially scrutinise other visual art forms. Censure by covert means was the preferred method to control subversive art. Guest: Dr Róisín Kennedy author of Art and the nation state: the reception of modern art in Ireland (2021)

· Part of the emotional response comes from a sense that modern art is conning us, hoodwinking us. Dr Róisín Kennedy

· Censorship culture made access to visual art elitist. Dr Róisín Kennedy

· The production of art in Ireland was directly affected by censorship in that artists produced landscapes as opposed to nudes. Dr Róisín Kennedy

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Harry Clarke ‘Geneva Window’ https://artsandculture.google.com/story/harry-clarke%E2%80%99s-geneva-window-and-the-irish-free-state-the-wolfsonian-florida-international-university/QgXRl5iSZDgXIQ?hl=en

George Rouault ‘Christ and the Soldier’ (1930)

https://www.facebook.com/thehughlane/photos/a.142685499153995/4103076829781489/?type=3

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Hero Worship: Roger Casement Part 2 May 05, 2022

Everyone wanted a piece of Roger Casement but which piece? Carefully extracting his skeleton from heavy London mud in 1965 didn’t end the controversy over his life and lusts.

· The treatment of Casement’s dead body was exceptionally cruel, even by the standards of executed prisoners.

· Why are all our significant national events in March? Is there some penitential impulse forcing us to suffer for our patriotism?

· After the burial of the great man in 1965, there little hope of anyone in Ireland reading his raunchy diaries, whether published or not.

· The Roger Casement in the diaries is having great fun and that, more than anything, upsets people.

Some Reading:

Lucy McDiarmid ‘The Afterlife of Roger Casement’ in The Irish Art of Controversy (2005)

Jeffrey Dudgeon, Roger Casement: The Black Diaries (3rd edition, 2019)

‘Notes on the Exhumation of Roger Casement’s Remains’ in Documents on Irish Foreign Policy 1961-65 vol 12

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Enormous: Roger Casement's Diaries Part 1 Apr 21, 2022

The scandal over Roger Casement’s diaries is huge. People have spent millions of hours of obsessing over whether diaries allegedly found in his personal papers were forgeries or not. It’s past time I read the smut and examined the censure of the man and his writings.

Truly, he was the hottest martyr of the 1916 Rising – you could argue he was the finest half who ever laid down his life for the cause of Irish freedom.
If you are looking for filth, you have to read a lot about gambling, sailing on ships and lost luggage.
Casement the hero cannot be Casement the man, especially if that man is a size queen with a very active sex life.

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Furious: O'Flaherty 'The Martyr' (1933) Apr 07, 2022

Liam O’Flaherty was the angriest Irish author of his generation who raged against ‘soutaned witch-doctors’ (Catholic priests). He believed his outspokenness provoked social censure so severe that his work could not be found anywhere in Ireland. Guest: Teresa Dunne

He’s a great man for the description of breasts Teresa Dunne
I can’t believe we’re discussing whether holy medals count as a sex toy Aoife Bhreatnach

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Contrabrand: The Bell Magazine (1940-54) Mar 24, 2022

Although The Bell published fiction and factual pieces on topics the censors hated, such as single motherhood or gay desire, it was never banned. Unfortunately, only a determined few read a magazine that was not on open sale in every newsagent. Guest: Phyllis Boumans Phyllis.boumans@kuleuven.be

· The Bell tried to challenge the Catholic monomania by giving space to voices from different denominations.

· It really was a magazine by, for and about men.

· It tried to advocate for frank and honest treatment of taboo topics such as illegitimacy.

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Burning the diabolical 'News of the World' Mar 10, 2022

In this episode we meet the Angelic Warfare Association, whose newspaper burning caused a stir in 1926 and 1927. Emulating protest burnings of previous decades, these young men targeted a British Sunday newspaper, the News of the World.

There were way more incidents of newspapers burnings than book bonfires.
The real truth about post-independence Ireland is that everyone was reading the News of the World.
Angelic Warfare was a boy’s sodality, so think of the Scouts, with extra praying.

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Boycott: McNamara 'The Valley of the Squinting Windows' (1918) Feb 24, 2022

Like many authors Brinsley McNamara wrote about the people of his homeplace. When his satirical vision shocked and offended his neighbours, they instigated a long boycott of the author’s family. A grim story of social censure in rural Ireland.

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Riotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907) Part 2 Feb 17, 2022

After debating the play in part 1, myself and Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston move onto the riots. It’s a wild ride, from the grumblings on opening night to the full-throated disorder of the following week. We pay special attention to Mr Overcoat, whose drunken antics injected absurdity to a rambunctious protest.

The disruptions make this play run for hours – it’s a three act comedy that 70 or 80 minutes in performance but this event goes for 3 hours. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
It all descends into pots calling kettles sexually disordered. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
The Abbey has a different function to commercial theatre, it’s trying to promote an image of Ireland, it’s representing Ireland and it’s almost asking for democratic feedback. Aoife Bhreatnach

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Riotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907) Part 1 Feb 10, 2022

The Playboy Riots were a notoriously rowdy series of audience protests in the Abbey Theatre. The patrons were so offended by The Playboy of the Western World their loud singing and heckling drowned out the actors. Why did this play, at this time, provoke such a reaction? Part 1 of a deep-dive with Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston into an infamous moment in Irish cultural history.

Christy is swinging his loy about in a very virile way that seems to suggest his iconoclastic sexual vitality. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
And then there’s Schrodinger’s parricide. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
Synge presents them as a bunch of inbred country bumpkins practicing clerically sanctioned incest. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston

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Rage: O'Brien 'Girls in their Married Bliss' (1964) Jan 20, 2022

It is no mystery why this novel was banned: the previous two novels in The Country Girls trilogy were also blacklisted. But in this short, punchy novel, O’Brien attacked many sacred cows.

No Irish tourist board would promote a pushy brass-necked woman like Baba.
Kate is married to one of the worst husbands in literature.
The sex scene is an extended commentary on gender, kink, sex education and homosexuality. And electric blankets.

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Throbbing: Hull 'The Sheik' (1919) Jan 06, 2022

How did a desert romance saturated with sex escape the censor’s attention? The novel, and later the film, were cultural phenomena: more than one cocktail recipe paid homage to The Sheik.

It is interesting that Diana reminds the Sheik of one of his thoroughbred horses Ellen Turner
Contemporary reviewers did condemn the novel for its sexual content Ellen Turner
It might be torture but it is quite nice, its exquisite Aoife Bhreatnach

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Dreadfully Common: Maugham 'Cakes and Ale' (1930) Dec 16, 2021

Nothing got past the beady-eyes of the censors, who decided a book about literary celebrity was indecent. The vigilantes who policed the bookshops were equally sharp, initiating a prosecution when ‘Cakes and Ale’ was on sale openly.

It’s subtitle was ‘The Skeleton in the Cupboard’ hinting that it is about a dirty shameful secret. It’s a great tease isn’t it – what is the skeleton and who’s keeping the cupboard under lock and key?
Apparently, Hugh Walpole recognised himself immediately in Alroy Kear. He sat up all night reading it, in tears, with one sock on.
In August 1931, C. O’Keeffe a Cork bookseller, was summonsed for ‘exposing a prohibited book for sale’.

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Blasphemy: Moore 'The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne' (1955) Dec 02, 2021

Scrutinised by two censorship boards, this novel is a moving exploration of lonely spinsterhood under patriarchal Catholicism.

I’ve always been fascinated by boarding houses because they are such marginal spaces in our residential landscape. Aoife Bhreatnach

Fr Quigley is one of Moore’s many critical representations of Catholic clergy. Sinéad Moynihan

It’s a really bleak novel, but it’s also an interesting portrayal of Belfast before the Troubles. Sinéad Moynihan

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Oh, James: Fleming 'Diamonds are Forever' Nov 18, 2021

‘Oh, James’ is a catchphrase from the Bond films, said by hot girls in breathy, sexy voices. When the love interest says it in ‘Diamonds are Forever’, she is disappointed. A bit like me, reading this book.

As critics have pointed out, the function of the Bond girl it to reflect Bond back to himself – she’s more a plot device than a character.

I found novel Bond repellent for precisely the same reasons film Bond is interesting.

Belsen? is there a prize for most inappropriate holocaust metaphor?

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Dirty Foreigners: O'Brien 'The Lonely Girl' (1962) Nov 04, 2021

This novel is the further adventures of Caithleen and her sidekick Baba in the big city, as they search for fun, love and a free meal. A sequel to ‘The Country Girls’ (1960) it was automatically banned by a board who hated its author.

· There was no such thing as a safe book. The Caithleens of Ireland – young women – were especially susceptible to notions.

· Caithleen’s independent life outside her father’s control can be snuffed out at his whim.

· The humour in the novel is really something, it’s magnificent.

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Obscene knowledge: Irish Family Planning Association 'Family Planning' (1976) Oct 21, 2021

Information about contraception or ‘family planning’ was illegal under the censorship act but weirdly, the censors banned this booklet for being ‘indecent or obscene’. What followed was a lengthy legal battle and a dent in the authority of the mighty censor. With guest, Dr Laura Kelly.

‘The IFPA felt there was a huge need for this booklet in Ireland.’

‘What’s distinctly Irish about this is there’s no mention of things like abortion or sexual pleasure. You get those in British and American publications of the same time.’

‘It’s lovely to think that this little booklet changed so much.’

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Wanton: Powys 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (1927) Oct 07, 2021

What could be indecent in a novel about God as a travelling wine salesman? Apart from the blasphemy, there are dirty deeds done under the oak tree in Folly Down village.

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Bottom wriggling: Anon 'The Memoirs of Dolly Morton' (1899) Sep 23, 2021

This ‘novel’ is an odd entry on the blacklist: why would censors in 1989 ban a publication from 1899? This antique erotica reveals a lot about 19th century kinks as well as the marketing strategies of smut merchants. Pity about the nauseating amounts of racism.

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Dirty Irish Colleens: Sep 09, 2021

Part 1 of a deep dive into the early work of Edna O’Brien, whose work has infuriated people since 1960. How did The Country Girls become one of the most notorious Irish novels of the 20th century? Blacklisting made this coming-of-age novel and it’s young author wildly famous. So many myths surround The Country Girls that it’s past time to read the novel for filth and rate its rudeness. With Dr Maureen O'Connor.

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Squalid Glamour: Isherwood 'Goodbye to Berlin' (1939) Aug 04, 2021

This fine collection of stories about the Berlin’s bohemian underclass in Berlin probably annoyed the censors. If they had read it closely, the rent boys and loose women would have given them a collective coronary. Guest: Dr Jonathan Kemp

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All Cork: O'Faoláin 'Bird Alone' (1936) Jul 22, 2021

Seán O’Faoláin’s love letter to his homeplace, Cork city, was singled out for censorship in 1936. Being blacklisted provoked his career-long critiques of the Irish state. Was this atmospheric, sometimes nostalgic novel banned because of its author or its content? Guest: Dr Paul Delaney.

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Teenage Rebel: Lessing 'Martha Quest (1952) Jul 08, 2021

Doris Lessing's radical politics scared the government of more than one country. This semi-autobiographical novel features an angry, impatient teenager growing up amidst the racial conflict in Africa.

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Revolutionary: Hansen and Jensen 'The Little Red Schoolbook' (1969) Jun 24, 2021

This little book was so dangerous that the French, British and South African governments joined the Irish censors in banning it. The blunt honesty about sex and drugs caused a global moral panic about childhood and innocence.

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Girls, Girls: Mead 'Coming of Age in Samoa' (1928) Jun 10, 2021

When it was published in America, this popular anthropology book made its author famous. The censors ignored it for nearly 20 years, until they banned it in 1944. Maybe they finally noticed that Mead praised horny teenage girls.

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All the antis: Shatter 'Laura' (1989) May 27, 2021

With unparliamentary sex and a tug-of-love legal battle, 'Laura' was a bestseller in 1989. So why on earth was it before the censors in 2013? It seemed very silly then but it appears more sinister now.

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Phallic: Flynn 'My Wicked, Wicked Ways' (1959) May 13, 2021

Errol Flynn embodied swashbuckling masculinity in Hollywood of the 1930s yet his dissipation killed him at 50. His memoir was marketed as salacious but how rude could it really be?

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A New Woman: Baum 'Helene' (1928) Apr 29, 2021

Baum was a bestselling author of the 1930s who attracted the ire of the Irish censors. Helene is a romance about a struggling university student with a serious feminist message.

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Mollocking: Gibbon 'Cold Comfort Farm' (1932) Apr 15, 2021

How could this delicious literary parody be described as indecent? Only the Irish censors saw something nasty in a comic take on DH Lawrence and Jane Austen.

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Fecundshite: Joyce 'Ulysses' (1922) Mar 18, 2021

James Joyce went way beyond smut when he wrote Ulysses, an epic modernist masterpiece. The censorship history of Ulysses is as mind boggling as the author’s bloody-minded determination to offend. In a bizarre twist, this filthy book was never banned in Ireland.

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Unsuitable for Irish: bold books as Gaeilge Mar 11, 2021

The scrutiny of the censor was confined to the English language. But work in Irish, the other language of the state, were also censored by editors, bureaucrats and catholic reactionaries. No language was allowed to explore scandalous ‘sex feelings’.

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The McGahern Affair Part 2, the scandal Mar 04, 2021

Outrage over banned books was rare but this scandal had it all: a persecuted artist, overbearing clerics and legal reform. The Dark (1965) was a powerful book that helped change the censorship system.

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The McGahern Affair Part 1, the Book Feb 25, 2021

When The Dark was banned in 1965, John McGahern became the focus of a censorship controversy. But what about this coming-of-age novel irked the censors?

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Sexual Inversion: Hall 'The Well of Loneliness' (1928) Feb 18, 2021

Hall's queer text was at the centre of an English moral panic and censorship show trial. Why did the Irish censor prohibit a book that was effectively banned in Ireland anyway?

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Too critical: O'Brien 'The Land of Spices' (1941) Feb 11, 2021

A censor called this book ‘unwholesome’ in parliament because it mentioned ‘sodomy’. But maybe O’Brien’s pointed criticism of nationalism was the real reason it was banned.

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Original Sin: Spark 'The Bachelors' (1960) Feb 04, 2021

An entertaining and elegant look at singledom in London that challenged censor's ideas on sex and conception.

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Torrid trash: Wheatley 'To the Devil a Daughter' (1953) Jan 28, 2021

Wheatley was a successful popular-fiction writer who was censored five times in Ireland. This spy thriller with a dash of Satanism is stuffed with reactionary xenophobic nonsense.

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Hex & Sex: Smith 'Passionate Witch' (1942) Jan 21, 2021

Only a truly paranoid censor would ban book this innocuous. But even barely there smut can give readers ideas...

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Ravishing: Anon 'The Lustful Turk' (1828) Jan 14, 2021

Why on earth was antique erotica, with its hilarious genital metaphors, censored in Ireland? This titillating text was officially 'obscene' for more than one hundred years.

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The worst girl: Madonna 'Sex' (1992) Jan 07, 2021

With nudity, leather and simulated sex of all varieties, Madonna tried to 'de-sin' sexual expression. This photographic book provoked over-reactions in Ireland, Britain, France and America.

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Republican Love Triangle: Broderick 'The Fugitives' (1962) Dec 03, 2020

An uncensored book that was full of sex, violence and subterfuge. How did Broderick get away with writing about gay, republican freedom-fighters? I don't know for sure, but I'm going to speculate.

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Thick Thighs: O'Brien, 'At Swim Two Birds' (1939) Nov 26, 2020

O'Brien was that rare thing: an Irish writer who was never banned in Ireland. A book that was less a plot and more a conspiracy distracted the filthy-minded censors.

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Mass Perversion: Comfort, 'The Joy of Sex' (1972) Nov 19, 2020

JoS was a bestselling sex guide that captured the spirit of the 70s sexual revolution. Although banned in Ireland, it was openly on sale. This is a complicated story of prohibited publications and outraged readers.

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Compulsive wanking: Roth 'Portnoy's Complaint' (1969) Nov 12, 2020

Why did the Irish censors ignore this spectacularly rude book? And why is this story of a sex-obsessed Jewish man so important in the history of censorship in Australia?

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Satanic Love Triangle: Mannin, 'Lucifer and the Child' (1946) Nov 05, 2020

What happens when a child meets a horned man in a dark forest? A book that explores the nature of evil and decides that sex isn’t the problem.

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Queer, with cocktails: Moore, 'Chocolates for Breakfast' (1956) Oct 29, 2020

A candid, haunting novel about the coming-of-age of a teenage girl. Full of decadent sexuality that would have given the censors a fit of the vapours.

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War is hell: Boell, 'And where were you, Adam?' (1951) Oct 22, 2020

How did this subtle, refined war novel earn a ban? Perhaps faeces or war crimes were more offensive than barely-there sex.

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Unzipped!: Collins, 'The Stud' (1969) Oct 15, 2020

The Stud is more silly than sexy and it's not the finest example of a bonkbuster. Why on earth would such a trashy, ridiculous book be banned when the censor ignored serious literary sex?

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Perverty Stuff: Salinger, 'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951) Oct 08, 2020

Holden Caulfield's swearing and sex talk has offended many since 1951. Now a modern classic, what explains the enduring appeal of this poor little rich kid story?

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Such Badness: Hoult, 'There were no windows' (1944) Oct 01, 2020

Hoult was banned more often than any other Irish woman writer. Only a censor's beady eye can find filth in a novel about loneliness and dementia

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Voluptuous Jazzing: McKay, 'Home to Harlem' (1928) Sep 24, 2020

A love letter to Harlem and its music, this book offended all kinds of people. McKay's honesty about sex was brave and inflammatory

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Low and vulgar: Cross, 'The Tailor and Ansty' (1942) Sep 17, 2020

A little book of folklore that became infamous. It was debated in parliament where nationalists denounced the elderly couple who were the subject of the book. But was the bull/cow story really that rude?

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There's something about Mary: Donleavy 'The Ginger Man' (1954) Aug 27, 2020

I need to rant about Mary, one of many wronged women in 'The Ginger Man'. A confident woman with her own coalshed brought down by an abusive man.

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Filth and Faeces: Beckett, 'More Pricks than Kicks' (1934) Aug 20, 2020

Even if the censors didn’t understand Beckett’s high-class smut, the lewd title was enough to get it banned. This short-story collection is stuffed with shit puns and blasphemy.

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Rapey Noir: Keene, 'Sleep with the Devil' (1954) Aug 13, 2020

The censor hated Keene’s pulp noir, banning his work many times. This taut thriller was full of violence but it was also a morality tale.

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Queer Ireland: Broderick, 'The Pilgrimage' (1961) Aug 06, 2020

Is it a book about a promiscuous wife, a pilgrimage or queer life in 1960s Ireland? Banned for indecency and blasphemy, Broderick's short novel is a multi-layered text.

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Bestial Behaviour: Endore, 'The Werewolf of Paris' (1933) Jul 30, 2020

Endore combined violence and blasphemy in this classic of the werewolf genre. It’s hard to know whether the radical politics or freaky sex most offended the censor.

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Love, not sex: Wallace, 'The Chapman Report' (1961) Jul 23, 2020

America was horrified when the Kinsey report proved that women were sexually transgressive. Wallace’s book trashed Kinsey but it still too sexy for the Irish censor.

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Lesbionic Lit: Highsmith, 'Carol' (1952) Jul 16, 2020

Is it a subversive lesbian romance or a psychological thriller? The hetronormative censor saw a dangerous text with a 'general tendency to deprave'.

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Evil Contraception: Stopes, 'Married Love' (1918) Jul 09, 2020

Marie Stopes' sex manual was banned for 50 years. Her promotion of contraception was radical in 1918 but it remained too controversial for the Irish state until 1980.

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Pure filth: Donleavy, ‘The Ginger Man’ (1955) Jul 02, 2020

Was it literature or porn? With sex on nearly every page, it wasn’t surprising this Irish novel was banned for decades.

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Thrusting ecstasy: Nin, 'A spy in the house of love' (1954) Jun 25, 2020

A novel that explores gendered notions of sex and love with some dodgy sex metaphors.

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A lot of ridin': Keane, 'Two Days in Aragon' (1942) Jun 18, 2020

A Big House novel where ordered tennis parties are subverted by fucking in the fields and bondage in the basement.

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Welcome to Season Two Jun 11, 2020

From great Irish writers to sex manuals, Aoife Bhreatnach will search for smut in ten more banned books. Season two will include dodgy sex metaphors and werewolves.

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Freaky Foreigners: Murdoch, 'The Flight from the Enchanter' (1956) Jun 04, 2020

Why is so hard to find sex in a book saturated with sexual tension? Trigger-happy censors overestimated the filth in this rich and inventive novel.

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Amoral sex: Huxley, 'Point Counter Point' (1928) May 28, 2020

One of the first books banned by the censor, this modernist classic is full of indecent and obscene ideas about sex.

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Babes and Boobs: 'Pleasure Ground' (1961) May 21, 2020

With a saucy cover showing lots of flesh, Hitt’s book was never going to be sold in Ireland. But did the text deliver on the smutty promise of the cover art?

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Convent Sex Crimes: 'The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk' (186) May 14, 2020

Why would a censor in 1964 worry about a book published more than a century earlier? Perhaps a Gothic horror story featuring fornicating nuns and priests was just too much.

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Sex in Suburbia: Yates, 'Revolutionary Road' (1961) May 07, 2020

This classic American novel critiques marriage, gender roles and masculinity. Was it sex or reproductive choices that attracted the ire of the censor?

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Sex and Soldiers: Heller, 'Catch-22' (1961) Apr 30, 2020

Censored in America and Ireland, Catch-22 is a controversial modern classic. Does the shagging and violence titillate or make a point?

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The First Bonkbuster: Winsor, 'Forever Amber' (1944) Apr 23, 2020

Forever Amber is the original bonkbuster, whose commercial success led to Peyton Place (1956) and Riders (1985). Banned in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Massachusetts as indecent, it sold millions of copies in the 1940s. Restoration England was the perfect backdrop for a lush, romantic romp but does the book deliver smut galore?

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One Little Orgy: Kerouac, 'The Dharma Bums' (1959) Apr 16, 2020

Was Jack Kerouac a pilgrim or self-obsessed misogynist? Featuring an indecent orgy in the name of religion, this book was censored in 1963.

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Single Girls, Shagging: Jaffe, 'The Best of Everything' (1958) Apr 09, 2020

A story of three single girls navigating the dating scene in New York was censorship-worthy literature in 1958. This 52-year-old book was rediscovered after it featured in ‘Mad Men’. It's a classic, but is it smutty?

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What a Wanker: Behan 'Borstal Boy' (1958) Apr 02, 2020

What shenanigans did Brendan Behan get up to in prison and borstal between 1939 and 1941? He enjoyed baiting the Brits, warm cocoa, snuggly blankets and … other things. In this episode, I’ll tell you about the rude bits in a book whose banning in Ireland and Australia provoked derision.

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Censored Trailer Mar 20, 2020

Filthy-minded historian and avid reader, Aoife Bhreatnach, searches censored books for smut, swearing and shagging. The Irish censor was infamous, banning 12,491 books and magazines between 1929 and 1998. Alongside the greats like Doris Lessing and Samuel Beckett were thousands of books, now mostly forgotten. Mediocre novels, sex manuals, true crime stories, pulp fiction, racy memoirs and queer literature: the Irish censor banned them all. Join Aoife as she reads like a smut-obsessed censor, looking for the rude bits in all kinds of books.

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