Censored

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

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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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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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