Censored

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 Ne...

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.   You can support the show here: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod And buy stickers here: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See aca...

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 8...

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 swing...

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 educ...

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...

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...

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...

‘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 precisel...

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....

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 t...

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.   Join me on Patreon for show notes and unexpurgated guest interviews: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod   Check out my merch https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati...

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Mau...

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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Get your merch here https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Support the show with stickers or subs! Merch: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

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. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Merch: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Merch: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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? Merch: http://store.censored.ie Subscribe on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  If you love Evil Literature, check out my merch: http://store.censored.ie Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.