Censored

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

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

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

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

An entertaining and elegant look at singledom in London that challenged censor's ideas on sex and conception. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Only a truly paranoid censor would ban book this innocuous. But even barely there smut can give readers ideas... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How did this subtle, refined war novel earn a ban? Perhaps faeces or war crimes were more offensive than barely-there sex. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

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

A love letter to Harlem and its music, this book offended all kinds of people. McKay's honesty about sex was brave and inflammatory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

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

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

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