Abstract

Censorship in the Irish Free State

The article examines the impact of the Free State censorship bill in Ireland on literature and thought. There is a list of sixty-five books banned since May, 1930. Of these from eighteen to twenty are concerned definitely with problems of sex and birth control. The Minister for Justice stated definitely that he did not intend to allow this subject to be discussed in the Free State, and the spirit of that utterance still prevails. In practice, however, it means that since denunciation of birth control became the fashion in Ireland, the subject must have been very widely discussed by people who do not read books at all. An open censorship can be fought, but an atmosphere of censorship cannot be grappled with. This censorship atmosphere, which is not new to Ireland, has produced by reaction a tradition of Irish writers whose works figure on the censored lists of other lands.