Censored

Although The Bell published fiction and factual pieces on topics the censors hated, such as single motherhood or gay desire, it was never banned. Unfortunately, only a determined few read a magazine that was not on open sale in every newsagent. Guest: Phyllis Boumans [email protected]

·     The Bell tried to challenge the Catholic monomania by giving space to voices from different denominations.

·     It really was a magazine by, for and about men.

·     It tried to advocate for frank and honest treatment of taboo topics such as illegitimacy.

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In this episode we meet the Angelic Warfare Association, whose newspaper burning caused a stir in 1926 and 1927. Emulating protest burnings of previous decades, these young men targeted a British Sunday newspaper, the News of the World.

• There were way more incidents of newspapers burnings than book bonfires.
• The real truth about post-independence Ireland is that everyone was reading the News of the World.
• Angelic Warfare was a boy’s sodality, so think of the Scouts, with extra praying.

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Like many authors Brinsley McNamara wrote about the people of his homeplace. When his satirical vision shocked and offended his neighbours, they instigated a long boycott of the author’s family. A grim story of social censure in rural Ireland.

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After debating the play in part 1, myself and Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston move onto the riots. It’s a wild ride, from the grumblings on opening night to the full-throated disorder of the following week. We pay special attention to Mr Overcoat, whose drunken antics injected absurdity to a rambunctious protest.

• The disruptions make this play run for hours – it’s a three act comedy that 70 or 80 minutes in performance but this event goes for 3 hours. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
• It all descends into pots calling kettles sexually disordered. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
• The Abbey has a different function to commercial theatre, it’s trying to promote an image of Ireland, it’s representing Ireland and it’s almost asking for democratic feedback. Aoife Bhreatnach

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The Playboy Riots were a notoriously rowdy series of audience protests in the Abbey Theatre. The patrons were so offended by The Playboy of the Western World their loud singing and heckling drowned out the actors. Why did this play, at this time, provoke such a reaction? Part 1 of a deep-dive with Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston into an infamous moment in Irish cultural history.

• Christy is swinging his loy about in a very virile way that seems to suggest his iconoclastic sexual vitality. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
• And then there’s Schrodinger’s parricide. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston
• Synge presents them as a bunch of inbred country bumpkins practicing clerically sanctioned incest. Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston

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It is no mystery why this novel was banned: the previous two novels in The Country Girls trilogy were also blacklisted. But in this short, punchy novel, O’Brien attacked many sacred cows.  

• No Irish tourist board would promote a pushy brass-necked woman like Baba.
• Kate is married to one of the worst husbands in literature.
• The sex scene is an extended commentary on gender, kink, sex education and homosexuality. And electric blankets.

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How did a desert romance saturated with sex escape the censor’s attention? The novel, and later the film, were cultural phenomena: more than one cocktail recipe paid homage to The Sheik.

• It is interesting that Diana reminds the Sheik of one of his thoroughbred horses Ellen Turner
• Contemporary reviewers did condemn the novel for its sexual content Ellen Turner
• It might be torture but it is quite nice, its exquisite Aoife Bhreatnach

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Nothing got past the beady-eyes of the censors, who decided a book about literary celebrity was indecent. The vigilantes who policed the bookshops were equally sharp, initiating a prosecution when ‘Cakes and Ale’ was on sale openly.

• It’s subtitle was ‘The Skeleton in the Cupboard’ hinting that it is about a dirty shameful secret. It’s a great tease isn’t it – what is the skeleton and who’s keeping the cupboard under lock and key?
• Apparently, Hugh Walpole recognised himself immediately in Alroy Kear. He sat up all night reading it, in tears, with one sock on.
• In August 1931, C. O’Keeffe a Cork bookseller, was summonsed for ‘exposing a prohibited book for sale’.

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Scrutinised by two censorship boards, this novel is a moving exploration of lonely spinsterhood under patriarchal Catholicism.

I’ve always been fascinated by boarding houses because they are such marginal spaces in our residential landscape. Aoife Bhreatnach

Fr Quigley is one of Moore’s many critical representations of Catholic clergy. Sinéad Moynihan

It’s a really bleak novel, but it’s also an interesting portrayal of Belfast before the Troubles. Sinéad Moynihan

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‘Oh, James’ is a catchphrase from the Bond films, said by hot girls in breathy, sexy voices. When the love interest says it in ‘Diamonds are Forever’, she is disappointed. A bit like me, reading this book.

• As critics have pointed out, the function of the Bond girl it to reflect Bond back to himself – she’s more a plot device than a character.

• I found novel Bond repellent for precisely the same reasons film Bond is interesting.

• Belsen? is there a prize for most inappropriate holocaust metaphor?

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