Banned in Ireland

Since 1929, Ireland has had one of the most punitive censorship laws in Europe. Countless books have fallen foul of its Censorship Board, ranging from pulp novels like "Hot Dames on Cold Slabs" to the works of Samuel Beckett. While books by most major British and American authors have been banned as "indecent" or "obscene", the Irish novelist has always been the principal victim of the Censorship Act. "Banned in Ireland" documents for the first time the full impact - personal, artistic, intellectual - of censorship on Irish writers. Julia Carlson interviews five novelists from the Republic of Ireland (Benedict Kiely, John Broderick, John McGahern, Edna O'Brien and Lee Dunne) and two from Northern Ireland (Maurice Leitch and Brian Moore) who discuss in depth their experiences of official and unofficial censorship. Although literary censorship is practised less frequently in today's Ireland, the Censorship of Publications Act remains in place and may be invoked at any time. The survival of a censorship mentality has had serious consequences for human rights: abortion, divorce and homosexuality are outlawed in Ireland.
Censorship, contends Maurice Leitch, is part of an effort to "protect people from the realities of their lives". "Banned in Ireland" exposes the realities of Irish censorship, sets the issue in its social and historical context, and allows the writers to speak for themselves.