Censored

One of the first books banned by the censor, this modernist classic is full of indecent and obscene ideas about sex.

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With a saucy cover showing lots of flesh, Hitt’s book was never going to be sold in Ireland. But did the text deliver on the smutty promise of the cover art?

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Why would a censor in 1964 worry about a book published more than a century earlier? Perhaps a Gothic horror story featuring fornicating nuns and priests was just too much.

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This classic American novel critiques marriage, gender roles and masculinity. Was it sex or reproductive choices that attracted the ire of the censor?

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Censored in America and Ireland, Catch-22 is a controversial modern classic. Does the shagging and violence titillate or make a point?

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Forever Amber is the original bonkbuster, whose commercial success led to Peyton Place (1956) and Riders (1985). Banned in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Massachusetts as indecent, it sold millions of copies in the 1940s. Restoration England was the perfect backdrop for a lush, romantic romp but does the book deliver smut galore?

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Was Jack Kerouac a pilgrim or self-obsessed misogynist? Featuring an indecent orgy in the name of religion, this book was censored in 1963.

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A story of three single girls navigating the dating scene in New York was censorship-worthy literature in 1958. This 52-year-old book was rediscovered after it featured in ‘Mad Men’. It's a classic, but is it smutty?

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What shenanigans did Brendan Behan get up to in prison and borstal between 1939 and 1941? He enjoyed baiting the Brits, warm cocoa, snuggly blankets and … other things. In this episode, I’ll tell you about the rude bits in a book whose banning in Ireland and Australia provoked derision.

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Filthy-minded historian and avid reader, Aoife Bhreatnach, searches censored books for smut, swearing and shagging. The Irish censor was infamous, banning 12,491 books and magazines between 1929 and 1998. Alongside the greats like Doris Lessing and Samuel Beckett were thousands of books, now mostly forgotten. Mediocre novels, sex manuals, true crime stories, pulp fiction, racy memoirs and queer literature: the Irish censor banned them all. Join Aoife as she reads like a smut-obsessed censor, looking for the rude bits in all kinds of books.

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