{"id":295,"date":"2015-01-16T09:43:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T14:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/?page_id=295"},"modified":"2015-07-13T12:16:31","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T16:16:31","slug":"censorship","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Faulkner\"<\/a> \"Huxley\"<\/a>\"Steinbeck\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jack Harte’s recent Sunday Miscellany piece and blogpost, Encountering John McGahern in the Censor’s Basement,<\/a> inspired a lively conversation on Facebook. I was asked if I knew of any list online of books prohibited in Ireland, and I failed to find one.\u00a0 So I have put together a select list, drawn from a number of sources, from the 1920s up to the 1960s.<\/p>\n

The most complete list of Irish books banned that I know of is by Donal \u00d3 Drisceoil, and is published as an appendix in Volume 5 of the Oxford History of the Irish Book.<\/em> I have found no similar list of books from outside Ireland, so the lists below are a start.<\/p>\n

Unlike banned books in the United States, where banning is usually limited to libraries and schools (it usually means that a book may not be found in a\u00a0 library or may not be purchased by a school district), the Irish censorship laws prevent the importation, sale or distribution of prohibited publications.\u00a0 The Censorship of Publications Act, 1929, was enacted to prohibit the sale and distribution of “unwholesome literature”.<\/p>\n

A database of prohibited books, periodicals and films would be an interesting project.\u00a0 Perhaps there is such a project on an international level?\u00a0 If I find out more, I will add information to this page.<\/p>\n

I have divided my list into books by Irish authors and books by other authors, followed by a bibliography.\u00a0 If there were a database, people could search by many different facets, perhaps even by “reason for prohibition”.<\/p>\n

This is a small selection of the thousands of books that have been prohibited by the Irish Government. The year in which a book was prohibited is listed with the author and title.\u00a0 This is usually the same as the year of publication.<\/p>\n

Books by Irish Authors<\/h3>\n

Samuel Beckett. More Pricks than Kicks<\/em>. 1934.
\nBrendan Behan. Borstal Boy<\/em>. 1958.
\nJohn Broderick. The Pilgrimage<\/em>. 1961.
\nGeorge Buchanan. Rose Forbes.<\/em> 1950
\nJoyce Cary. A fearful joy.<\/em> 1950
\nJoyce Cary. Castle Corner<\/em>. 1938.
\nJoyce Cary. Charley is my Darling<\/em>. 1940.
\nJoyce Cary. Herself Surprised.<\/em> 1942.
\nAustin Clarke. The Bright Temptation.<\/em> 1932.
\nAustin Clarke. The Singing Men at Cashel.<\/em> 1936.
\nRearden Conner. Hunger of the heart<\/em>. 1950.
\nEric Cross. The Tailor and Ansty.<\/em> 1942.
\nJ. P. Donleavy. The Ginger Man.<\/em> 1955.
\nJ. P. Donleavy. A Singular Man<\/em>. 1964.
\nLee Dunne. The Cabfather<\/em>. 1976,
\nLee Dunne. Paddy Maguire is dead<\/em>.
\nFrank Harris. My life and loves<\/em>. 1950
\nNorah Hoult. Selected Stories.<\/em> 1946.
\nNorah Hoult. Coming from the Fair<\/em>. 1937.
\nNora Hoult. Augusta steps out<\/em>. 1942.
\nNorah Hoult. Four Women Grow Up.<\/em> 1940.
\nBenedict Kiely. Honey seems bitter<\/em> 1952
\nBenedict Kiely. There was an ancient house<\/em>. 1955
\nBenedict Kiely. In a harbour green. 1950.
\nMaura Laverty. Alone we embark<\/em>. 1943
\nMaurice Leitch. Liberty Lad<\/em> 1965
\nMaurice Leitch. Poor Lazarus. <\/em>1969
\nJohn McGahern. The Dark. <\/em>1965
\nWalter Macken. I am alone.<\/em> 1950
\nEthel Mannin. Julie<\/em>. 1940.
\nEthel Mannin. Ragged Banners.<\/em> 1931.
\nEthel Mannin. Red Rose<\/em>. 1941.
\nEthel Mannin. Rolling in the Dew<\/em>. 1940.
\nEthel Mannin. The Blossoming bough<\/em>. 1943.
\nEthel Mannin. Cactus<\/em>. 1942.
\nEthel Mannin. Captain Moonlight.<\/em> 1943.
\nEthel Mannin. Commonsense and Morality<\/em>. 1942.
\nEthel Mannin. Common-sense and the Child<\/em>. 1942.
\nEthel Mannin. Confessions and Impressions.<\/em> 1930.
\nBrian Moore. Judith Hearne.<\/em> 1955. Later banned under title The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne<\/em>.
\nBrian Moore. The Feast of Lupercal<\/em> 1957
\nBrian Moore. The luck of Ginger Coffey<\/em>. 1960
\nBrian Moore. An answer from Limbo.<\/em> 1962
\nGeorge Moore. A Story-teller\u2019s Holiday.<\/em> 1933.
\nEdna O\u2019Brien. The Country Girls<\/em>. 1960
\nEdna O\u2019Brien. The lonely girl.<\/em> 1962
\nEdna O\u2019Brien. Girl with the green eyes.<\/em> 1964
\nEdna O\u2019Brien. Girls in their married bliss.<\/em> 1964
\nEdna O\u2019Brien. August is a wicked month.<\/em>(1965
\nKate O\u2019Brien. Mary Lavelle<\/em>. 1936.
\nKate O\u2019Brien. Land of spices.<\/em>
\nSean O\u2019Casey. I Knock at the Door.<\/em> 1939.
\nSean O\u2019Casey. Pictures in the Hallway.<\/em> 1942.
\nSean O\u2019Casey. Windfalls<\/em>. 1934.
\nFrank O\u2019Connor. Dutch Interior <\/em>1940.
\nFrank O\u2019Connor. The common chord<\/em> 1947
\nFrank O\u2019Connor. Travellers\u2019 Samples<\/em> (1951)
\nFrank O’Connor’s translation of Brian Merriman\u2019s The Midnight Court<\/em> was banned 1946.
\nFrank O’Connor. Kings,<\/em> Lords and Commons.<\/em> 1961.
\nSean O Faolain. Bird alone.<\/em> 1936.
\nSean O Faolain. Midsummer Night Madness.<\/em> 1932.
\nLiam O\u2019Flaherty. Hollywood Cemetery<\/em>. 1937.
\nLiam O\u2019Flaherty. The House of Gold<\/em>. 1930.
\nLiam O\u2019Flaherty. The Puritan<\/em>. 1932.
\nLiam O\u2019Flaherty. The Martyr.<\/em> 1933.
\nLiam O\u2019Flaherty. Shame the Devil.<\/em> 1934.
\nCon O\u2019Leary. A Hillside Man.<\/em> 1933.
\nOliver St. John Gogarty. Going Native.<\/em> 1942.
\nGeorge Bernard Shaw. The adventures of the Black Girls in her search for God.<\/em> 1933.
\nFrancis Stuart. Julie.<\/em> 1939.
\nFrancis Stuart. The flowering cross.<\/em> 1950
\nHalliday Sutherland. The laws of life.
\n<\/em>E. L. Voynich. The Gadfly. 1943.<\/em>
\nAnthony West. On a dark night<\/em>. 1950.<\/p>\n

Books from the rest of the world<\/h3>\n

Sherwood Anderson. Horses and Men<\/em>. 1931.
\nPearl S. Buck. Dragon Seed.<\/em> 1942.
\nErskine Caldwell. American Earth<\/em>. 1935
\nErskine Caldwell. God\u2019s Little Acre<\/em>. 1934.
\nErskine Caldwell. Tobacco Road<\/em>. 1933.
\nErskine Caldwell. We are the Living<\/em>. 1934.
\nBarbara Cartland. First Class, Lady?<\/em> 1937.
\nColette. Cheri<\/em> (all English versions). 1931.
\nA.J. Cronin. The Stars Look Down<\/em>. 1935.
\nSimone de Beauvoir. A History of Sex.<\/em> 1961.
\nSimone de Beauvoir. Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome.<\/em> 1962.
\nJohn Dos Passos. The Forty-second Parallel.<\/em> 1930.
\nJohn Dos Passos. Manhattan Transfer<\/em>. 1934.
\nJohn Dos Passos. Nineteen Nineteen.<\/em> 1932.
\nTheodore Dreiser. Dawn.<\/em> 1931.
\nDaphne Du Maurier. I\u2019ll Never be young again.<\/em> 1942.
\nWilliam Faulkner. As I lay dying.<\/em> 1935
\nWilliam Faulkner. The Hamlet<\/em>. 1940.
\nWilliam Faulkner. Pylon.<\/em> 1935.
\nWilliam Faulkner. Soldier\u2019s Pay.<\/em> 1931.
\nWilliam Faulkner. The Wild Palms<\/em>. 1939.
\nRumer Godden. Breakfast with the Nikolides.<\/em> 1942.
\nMaxim Gorki. Bystander<\/em>. 1931.
\nRobert Graves. I, Claudius<\/em>. 1936.
\nGraham Greene. Brighton Rock<\/em>. 1939.
\nGraham Greene. Stamboul Train<\/em>. 1938.
\nJoseph Heller. Catch 22.<\/em> 1962.
\nErnest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms<\/em>. 1936.
\nErnest Hemingway. Fiesta.<\/em> 1941.
\nErnest Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls. 1941.
\nErnest Hemingway. To Have and Have Not<\/em>. 1938.
\nErnest Hemingway. The Essential Hemingway<\/em> (incorporating Fiesta). 1958.
\nHermann Hesse. Death and the Lover.<\/em> 1933.
\nAldous Huxley. Antic Hay.<\/em> 1930
\nAldous Huxley. Brave New World.<\/em> 1932.
\nAldous Huxley. Brief Candles.<\/em> 1930.
\nAldous Huxley. Eyeless in Gaza<\/em>. 1936.
\nChristopher Isherwood. Goodbye to Berlin<\/em>. 1939.
\nSinclair Lewis. Ann Vickers.<\/em> 1933.
\nSinclair Lewis. Elmer Gantry.<\/em> 1931.
\nEric Linklater. The Crusader\u2019s Key.<\/em> 1938.
\nThe Little Red Schoolbook.<\/em> 1972.
\nAndre Malraux. Storm in Shanghai<\/em> (La condition humaine). 1936 (all English versions)
\nW. Somerset Maugham. Cakes and Ale, or the Skeleton in the Cupboard.<\/em> 1930.
\nRichard Llewellyn. How Green was my Valley<\/em>. 1940.
\nW. Somerset Maugham. Theatre.<\/em> 1937.
\nW. Somerset Maugham. Up at the Villa.<\/em> 1941.
\nMarcel Proust. Remembrance of Things Past,<\/em> vols. 9-12. 1943.
\nAyn Rand. We, the Living.<\/em> 1937.
\nBertrand Russell. Marriage and Morals.<\/em> 1930.
\nMikhail Sholokhov. The Don Flows Home to the Sea.<\/em> 1941.
\nGeorges Simenon. Lost Moorings.<\/em> 1958.
\nStephen Spender. The burning cactus<\/em>. 1936.
\nJohn Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath.<\/em> 1940.
\nJohn Steinbeck. To a God Unknown.<\/em> 1935.
\nMarie Stopes. Contraception<\/em>. 1930.
\nMarie Stopes. Marriage in my Time.<\/em> 1935.
\nHugh Walpole. The Blind Man\u2019s House.<\/em> 1942.
\nH. G. Wells. Babes in the Darkling Wood<\/em>. 1941.
\nH. G. Wells. The Bulpington of Blup<\/em>. 1933.
\nH. G. Wells. Phoenix.<\/em> 1943.
\nRichard Wright. Uncle Tom\u2019s Children.<\/em> 1958.<\/p>\n

Brief Bibliography on the Censorship of Books in Ireland<\/h3>\n

(Hesburgh Library classification numbers are included where possible.)<\/p>\n

Adams, Michael.\u00a0 Censorship: The Irish Experience<\/em>. Alabama: University of Alabama Press\/ Dublin: Scepter Books, 1968.\u00a0 Z 657 .A3
\nA systematic account of censorship from the founding of the Free State in 1922, describing the political and bureaucratic development of censorship. Public opinion is treated with an account of some of the controversies. This is very well annotated, with many facts and figures from primary sources. Appendixes include the following lists:
\nA Selection of books prohibited 1930-1946; A selection of books prohibited during the years 1946-1966 inclusive.<\/p>\n

Carlson, Julia. Banned in Ireland: Censorship and the Irish writer.<\/em> Edited for Article 19 by Julia Carlson. London: Routledge, 1990. PR 8803 .B36 1990
\nPreface by Kevin Boyle, founding director of Article 19, the International Centre on Censorship.
\nIntroduction by Julia Carlson gives an overview of the censorship of books in Ireland.
\nInterviews with Benedict Kiely, John Broderick, John McGahern, Edna O\u2019Brien, Lee Dunne, Maurice Leitch and Brian Moore.
\nThe appendix consists of the following essays on censorship: The Censorship Bill, by AE; The Censorship and St. Thomas Aquinas, by W. B. Yeats; The Censorship, by G. Bernard Shaw; The Irish Censorship, by Liam O\u2019Flaherty; Censorship in the Saorstat, by Samuel Beckett; The Mart of Ideas, by Sean O\u2019Faolain; Frank O\u2019Connor on Censorship, by Frank O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

Carlson, Julia. \u2018Christopher J. O\u2019Reilly: Profile of an Irish censor.\u2019 In O\u2019Leary and Lazaro: Censorship across borders<\/em>. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011. Z 658 .E85 C467 2011<\/p>\n

Hackett, Francis. 1936. \u201cA muzzle made in Ireland.\u201d Dublin Magazine<\/em> (October-December): 8-17<\/p>\n

Kelly, James.\u00a0 \u201cThe operation of the Censorship of Publications Board: The notebooks of C. J. O\u2019Reilly, 1951-55\u201d. Analecta Hibernica 38 (2004)<\/em>: 223-369.<\/p>\n

Martin, Peter. Censorship in the Two Irelands 1922-1939.<\/em> Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006. P 96 .C42 I733 2006<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Drisceoil, D\u00f3nal. ‘The dark chapter: censorship and the Irish writer’. In Hutton and Walsh (ed.): The Irish Book in English.<\/em> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Z331.3 .I75 2011b
\nThis book, volume five in the\u00a0Oxford History of the Irish Book<\/em> includes an appendix compiled by D\u00f3nal \u00d3 Drisceoil which lists Irish books banned under the Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929-67.<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Drisceoil, Donal. “The best banned in the land\u201d: Censorship and Irish writing since 1950. The yearbook of English studies 35: Irish Writing since 1950<\/em>: 146-160 (Available on JSTOR)<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Drisceoil, D\u00f3nal. \u2018Frank O\u2019Connor and Irish literary censorship.\u2019 In O\u2019Leary and Lazaro: Censorship across borders.<\/em> Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011. Z 658 .E85 C467 2011<\/p>\n

Ryan, Brendan. Keeping us in the dark: Censorship and freedom of information in Ireland.<\/em> Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1995. Z 658 .I73 R936 1995
\nOn secrecy in all areas of government and commerce, e.g. health, local government, pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Drisceoil, Donal. Censorship in Ireland, 1930-1945: neutrality, politics and society.<\/em> Cork: Cork University Press, 1996. Z 658 .I73 O375 1996<\/p>\n

Woodman, Kieran. 1985. Media control in Ireland.<\/em> Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985.<\/p>\n

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Primary Sources <\/strong><\/p>\n

Newspapers (The Irish Times<\/em> includes periodic lists of banned books).<\/p>\n

Ireland: Department of Justice. Register of Prohibited Publications (As on the 31st December, 1943.) <\/em>Dublin: Stationery Office, 1943.<\/p>\n

Ireland: Department of Justice. Censorship of Publications Act, 1929.<\/em> Website: Irish Statute Book, produced by the Office of the Attorney General. http:\/\/www.irishstatutebook.ie\/1929\/en\/act\/pub\/0021\/print.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Jack Harte’s recent Sunday Miscellany piece and blogpost, Encountering John McGahern in the Censor’s Basement, inspired a lively conversation on Facebook. I was asked if I knew of any list online of books prohibited in Ireland, and I failed to find one.\u00a0 So I have put together a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-295","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/irish-hesburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}