EIRE’S CENSORSHIP STRICT ON IMMORAL LITERATURE

Grey River Argus, 6 September 1948, Page 7

EIRE’S CENSORSHIP STRICT ON IMMORAL LITERATURE

(From Patrick Quinn, Reuter’s correspondent): DUBLIN, (By Airmail). In Eire reading, seeing and hearing are conscientiously supervised by statutory boards of censors consisting of unpaid voluntary workers appointed by the Government. The .boards have powers to enforce their decisiotis. There are three of these boards. Two assist the controller of censorship of the printed word, of which one is an Appeals Board which reviews decisions reached by the other if complaint is made against them. The third is an Appeals Board which arbitrates upon decision reached by the . film censor when disputes arise. Censors of the written word have to read all the suspect matter referred to them in the shape of books magazines, newspapers, and journals. Censorship materials includes “anything suggestive of, or exciting sexual immorality, unnatural vice, or in any other way, to corrupt or deprave.” Books or publications dealing with the prevention of conception, abortion, miscarriages, or the use of appliances for such purposes, belong to a special category, upon which the strictest watch is kept. The Obscene Publications Act, passed in Britain in 1857, was considered too mild an instrument to secure the control considered desirable in Eire. It was therefore repealed and replaced, in 1929 by the Censorship of Publications Act. The original Act laid the obligation to read all suspect books referred to him by any citizen upon the Minister of Justice, and to for-, ward to the censor any he deemed unfit. This duty was, however, recently turned over to a newly appointed controller of censorship, who is asisted by the two statutory Boards. The present controller of censorship, Mr Brian MacMahon, is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, who was always opposed to the indiscriminate circulation of the printed word, in Eire. While an undergraduate at Uffiversity College, Dublin, and long before any one had thought of an official censorship for Eire, of the kind now operating, he had definite ideas on the sort of books which Irish people should be allowed to read. He considered, for example, Eleanor Glyn’s “Five Nights” and “Three Weeks” were unsuitable reading matter for young girls—and to the annoyance of girls whom he found reading them, he burned the books. That was over thirty years ago. He now presides over the Censorship of Publications House, at 21 Fitzwilliam Square Dublin, surround, ed by a library of “bad” books tc the number of over 2000. Any one in Dublin is entitled to inspect the register of banned books in his office and quite a few visitors are reported to take advantage of this facility. There are, however, degrees of censorship in Eire. No book required for official, medical, or legal purposemay be censored. Again, the censors endeavour to estimate the type of reader likely to be' interested in a | certain book. If they consider that it is one unlikely to reach the masses it may be passed for circulation in better class libraries. The main anxiety of the censors is to protect the unsophisticated masses. This is now becoming a special problem owing to the spread of the popular library being encouraged by the. Government. 'While one local library committee may object to and remove from its shelves a book which the official censors have passed for general circulation, the committee in the next town may share/the official view. There have been some stormy Parliamentary debates concerning the censor’s activities; but the support for protestators has always proved too small to be effective. Catholic opinion, both clerical and lay, is the main force behind the censorship. But the censorship also has the unswerving support of the other churches. When all chures in Eire are united on an issue they are likely to have their way. Catholic opinion in- Eire in' some cases differs considerably from that in Britain in regard to the printed word. A recent example of this difference is Graham Green’s much discussed book “The Heart of the Matter.” This was banned by the Eire censors, but endorsed by Catholic thought, in Britain as a book which Catholics might read with advantage. “This is a magnificent- book” was the comment of the well-known Jesuit Priest Father Martindale, in the Catholic Newspaper’ “Universe.” However, as divorce is not allowed under the law of Eire and promiscuous living may not be discussed in public print, the axe of censorship fell upon the book here. Films often have to be cut considerably, especially sound films. In come cases as much as half the footage of a feature film may have to go before a sensible sequence can be found after some offensive passages in sound or visual effect have been, cut out. In the days of the silent films, the excision of a few feet of film did the trick, but this cutting does not appear., to diminish interest in pictures in Eire.