'The best banned in the land': censorship and Irish writing since 1950

Ó Drisceoil, Donal

'The best banned in the land': censorship and Irish writing since 1950

Files

DOD_BestPV2005.pdf(392.37 KB)

Published Version

Date

2005

Authors

Ó Drisceoil, Donal

Publisher

Modern Humanities Research Association

Abstract

This article examines the censorship of Irish writing since 1950. It gives an historical overview of the evolution of literary censorship in twentieth-century Ireland, with particular reference to the operations of the Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929 and 1946. It includes a list of books by Irish authors that were banned since 1950; an account of the supplanting of the Catholic activists who had controlled the Censorship of Publications Board since its inception; the fundamental reforms introduced in 1967; and an account and analysis of the impact of censorship on Irish writing and Irish writers, and the variety of their responses.

Keywords

Censorship , Irish writing , Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929 , Censorship of Publications Acts, 1946 , Censorship of Publications Board

Citation

O Drisceoil, Donal; (2005) ''The best banned in the land': Censorship and Irish Writing since 1950'. The Yearbook of English Studies, 35 :146-160.