Shows
CensoredAbject Grace: Bad Lieutenant (1992) feat. Rob DoyleThis remarkable neo-noir, directed by Abel Ferrara, has never been certified by the Irish Film Classification Office (the new name for the censor’s office). Aoife and Lloyd Meadhbh are joined by author Rob Doyle to discuss how Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund, with backgrounds in porno sleaze, made a sincere film about redemption, and forgiveness.Bad Lieutenant dir. Abel Ferrara, starring Harvey KeitelRob Doyle Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2024-05-2349 min
CensoredAnti-natal: Rosemary's Baby (1968)A horror fan (Lloyd Meadhbh) and not-a-horror fan (Aoife) agree that this unexpectedly feminist film did not deserve to be banned twice in Ireland. Caveat: Roman Polanski directed it.Rosemary’s Baby (dir. Roman Polanski) starring Mia Farrow and John CassavetesMerch!Support us on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2024-04-0438 min
CensoredThe Full Gere: American Gigolo (1980)Ties, suits and sex - Paul Schrader's exploration of consumerism and Richard Gere's hotness was pruned of bad language and "sex scenes" by the Irish censor.American Gigolo (1980, dir. Paul Schrader) starring Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Bill Duke, Hector ElizondoYou Must Remember This on American Gigolo More on Aoife's Gere-athon for Patreon supportersMerch! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2024-03-2138 min
CensoredVideo Nasties (Part Two)What’s the worst celluloid crime committed in The Evil Dead: excessive violence or Bruce Campbell’s fringe? Lloyd Meadhbh (a fan) tries to persuade Aoife (a sceptic) to embrace this video-nasty classic. Also, listener correspondence on The Rocky Road to Dublin.The Evil Dead (dir. Sam Rami, 1981) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_8_nm_0_q_evil%2520deadEvil Dead II (dir. Sam Rami, 1987) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_7_tt_8_nm_0_q_evil%2520dead%2520Weird Studies Podcast on ‘Evil Dead II’ https://www.weir...2024-03-0731 min
CensoredUlster Says No, Absolutely NotLloyd Meadhbh explains Northern Ireland’s special censorship sauce to Aoife. There’s cross-border agreement, even more censors than usual and a bit of flogging. Films:Ulster the Garden of Eden (1930), tourist authority of NI Frankenstein (1931, dir James Whale) Ourselves Alone (1936, dir Brian Desmond Hurst, Walter Summers) Released in the US as Rivers of Unrest https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028071/ The Informer (1935, dir John Ford) Merch!Support us Hosted on Acast. See acast...2023-11-0250 min
CensoredAn Underground Film SceneAoife's working title was 'Wildcard' – we went on a journey through vice-ridden streets (and garages) of Dublin city in 1954.Films:Smart Alec (1951) US 'stag' film starring Candy Barr Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2023-10-0539 min
CensoredSadism: Michael Arlen, ‘Hell! Said the Duchess’ (1934)Why would Irish censors object to a satire of the English upper-classes? They probably wouldn’t but Arlen wrote something far creepier. With Dr Laura Ludtke.He's merciless on the role of sport in creating Englishman. Aoife BhreatnachI have to admit, the introduction of Mosley as the Minister of War in a fascist conservative coalition government led by Winston Churchill did throw me for a bit. Laura LudtkeTo use the narrator's own terms, there is something damn queer about the case. Laura LudtkeThese are powerful mammaries. Aoife Bhreatnach Laura's podcastLau...2023-07-0648 min
CensoredFilthy Films: a TeaserWhat do you do when you’ve read a lot of smutty books? Watch dirty films, of course. This season is about films that annoyed the censors. And, to double your fun, there are now two hosts: Aoife Bhreatnach and Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston. Here’s a taste of what to expect from us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2023-06-1610 minCensoredTeasing: Mae West 'She Done Him Wrong' (1932)Mae West is remembered for her cracking one-liners but she was a helluva writer too. Guest: Dr Muireann O’Cinnéide. Her sexual persona that she creates in the film She Done Him Wrong means the Irish censors interpret this book as essentially indecent. Aoife BhreatnachOne of the things West seems to thinking about in the novel is: how do you replace that immediate kind of visual vivid iconography with a kind of a linguistic equivalent? Dr Muireann O’CinnéideIt’s really quite a vivid rendering of a particularly ugly, corrupt world in which both crime, po...2023-05-2548 minCensoredDot, Dot, Dot: Anon., WAAC: the Woman's Story of the War (1930)One of many books about the First World War on the censor’s blacklist, this one claims to offer a new, fresh perspective about the British army. But how much truth can a memoir written by ‘anonymous’ tell? With Dr Andrew Frayn. For a novel that's meant to be from a women's point of view, it's often very uncharitable about them. Andrew FraynPeople are walked up to the door of the bedroom, told it is a bedroom, and then left to imagine for themselves. Aoife BhreatnachIt's a generic novel at a moment when this kind of war boo...2023-03-3040 minCensoredSubterfuge: Exchange and Mart magazine (1930)A deep dive into the wonderful world of classified advertisements. You could buy nearly anything through Exchange and Mart: dogs, chickens, clothing. But if you look very closely, you can see why the censors decided it was ‘habitually and frequently indecent’.Without the post, E&M would never have existed – it was a business built on stamps and lettersTo avoid being prosecuted for obscenity, advertisers developed a whole language of euphemism to sell contraceptivesWhat I love about classified ads is the mix of boring and ambiguous within themSelling birth control devices in Britain: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2020/09/08/someth...2023-02-0226 minCensoredGenius: Isadora Duncan 'My Life' (1927)Isadora Duncan was an artist who lived (and died) in an extraordinary manner. Her autobiography tells how she conceived a radical dance manifesto while partying across Europe.This memoir sold extremely well in America, being reprinted 9 times in 10 monthsA lot of this book reads like a society gossip column. Duncan can’t help being political: everything she sees about her life and women’s lives is politics to her.Fancy supporting the show? Do so here https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Or buy stickers here: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See...2023-01-1929 minCensoredPropaganda: Bösche ‘Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin’ (1983)Why did a children’s picture book provoke new form of censorship in Britain? Danish attitudes to children produced books that upset other European cultures. Before Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin was published in 1983, a member of parliament called Geoffrey Dickens called bookshops to boycott it.In 1988, a co-operative in Cork city called the Quay Co-Cop ran a bookshop that stocked what they said was the ‘most comprehensive and up-to-date selection of lesbian and gay titles in Ireland’. Queer Ephemera:https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/jenny-lives-with-eric-and-martin-a-special/id1488294070?i=1000464529828 2023-01-0524 minCensoredNudity: Health and Efficiency magazine (1933)For the first time on the podcast, it’s a publication that’s still banned in Ireland! According to Register of Prohibited Publications, Health and Efficiency is ‘unwholesome literature’. Naturally, we want to know precisely how this magazine is corrupting and degrading its readers. With Prof Annebella Pollen.Here’s today's 'blacklist'Annebella Pollen, Nudism in a Cold Climate: the Visual Culture of Naturists in Mid-20th Century Britain (2021) Annebella’s article in Health and Efficiency Throughout the thirties in Britain, when Nudism was becoming more acceptable and even fashionable...2022-12-1535 minCensoredSeedy: Greene 'Stamboul Train' (1932)A train that could whisk its passengers across borders and into each other’s arms was definitely too dangerous for the censors. With Juliette Breton. There's something quite erotic and tempting about travel, the possibility that you can go anywhere, but also you can meet anyone. Juliette BretonSo many thriller/adventure/spy novels from the period use trains as a kind of way of getting into the action. Juliette BretonThe train is like the boat going across the River Styx – everyone gets on it eventually. Aoife Bhreatnach Fancy supporting the show? Do so he...2022-11-2439 minCensoredPrimitives: Macken, ‘Quench the Moon’ (1948)When Walter Macken dedicated his first novel to his Mammy, Agnes, he did not expect the censors to declare it ‘obscene’. How does a social-problem novel by a good Catholic offend the official arbiters of taste? Illegitimacy and pre martial sex are central themes and key plot devices. It's not as full throated an exploration of the relationship between man and sheep as you might expect. Macken went deep into our souls without us really noticing. Fancy supporting the show? Do so here https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Or buy stickers here...2022-11-1031 minCensoredSeconal Days: Valley of the Dolls (1966)Hailed as ‘Dirty Book of the Month’ by Time in 1966, this novel was an instant bestseller. But not in Ireland, where it was illegal to sell it between 1967 and 1979. What does this classic of women’s fiction have to say about feminism, sex and medicine? With Dr Cara Rodway. I think one of the reasons it was so successful is that it has a wonderful curtain twitching element: who are the real celebrities that it’s based on? Cara RodwayThe first film has been somewhat resurrected in later years as a sort of camp classic. Cara RodwayI t...2022-10-2754 minCensoredSeductive: Gibbons 'Nightingale Wood' (1938)This is the first banned book I’ve read that features both a foot fetish and communism. Gibbons writes satire so entrancing it’s can be hard to spot the filth but if the censors could do it, so could we. Or maybe the bewitching Englishness of the novel was too dangerous? With Dr Laura Ludtke.The novel induced that certain sweet boredom you get from reading a slow book where you look up and realize the world has moved on. Aoife BhreatnachThe names are so indicative in a very Dickensian and maybe even Austenian way...2022-10-131h 04CensoredThrilling: True Detective MysteriesHundreds of magazine titles were banned by the Irish censor. This true-crime periodical, full of murder and gangsterism, couldn’t avoid being banned for discussing crime. But advertising ‘daring’ and ‘frank’ books didn’t help either. The exuberant rampant Americanness of this magazine is what really struck me.The law also banned court reports on ‘any indecent matter the publication of which would be calculated to injure public morals’.You can see the roots of contemporary true crime in this one edition.The edition read for this episode is June 1930 https://archive.org/deta...2022-09-2931 minCensoredLust: Maura Laverty 'Alone We Embark' (1942)When Maura Laverty gently pointed out that Irish villages simmered with perverted lust, her novel was immediately censored. Or maybe it was her pointed criticism of the state that offended the censors.If an author can please an Irish audience with a book called ‘darlin’ by the British, she must be doing something special.This is a chilling depiction of poverty and old age in the new County Homes, where the new republic has made no difference at all.This is all very soap opera - Laverty actually wrote a TV soap called Tolka Row in t...2022-09-1533 minCensoredEvil Literature: languages of censorshipThe pro-censorship lobby produced a rich and often hilarious polemic. Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston joins me to talk effluent, tainted minds and ‘race suicide’. We also debate whether censorship was more of a moral panic than a conspiracy theory. Alongside the priests, there are a lot of politicians in these debates where they use rhetoric of censorship to express profound and disturbed Anglophobia. Aoife BhreatnachD.P. Moran would have thrived in today’s internet culture, he would have been the king of Twitter. Lloyd (Maedhbh) HoustonIf you are looking for filth in everything you read, you wi...2022-08-181h 01CensoredThe Bishop and the Nightie (1966): censure in televisonThe most memorable scandals in Irish life feature a fulminating bishop and this is no exception. This brief controversy is infamous but why do we find it so compelling? Dr Morgan Wait joins me to talk about television and titillation in 1960s Ireland. Anything that doesn’t feature Gay Byrne is going to get considerably less attention. Morgan Wait When people recognise themselves, or suspect they recognise themselves, they get cross and ask for changes. Aoife Bhreatnach One of the biggest letter writing incidents was around ‘Home Truths’ and it had nothing to do wit...2022-07-1441 minCensoredPlaying politics: censure in theatresTheatre riots might capture the imagination but audiences, critics and authority figures shape theatre in other less dramatic ways. Guest Dr Barry Houlihan talks about his new book Theatre and archival memory: Irish drama and marginalised histories 1951-77 (2022)· Reading a banned book is a private thing while theatre-going is a public political act. · Theatre is a way of dismantling the mechanics of the state and church. · Theatres are institutions in their own way – they can have set audiences that they cater for and don’t want to lose.You can support the show h...2022-06-1634 minCensoredMorally healthy: censure in librariesWhen tax payers pay for libraries, librarians have a duty to ‘the public’. Defining that public isn’t easy, especially when priests, pressure groups and politicians get involved. · Being an arbiter of taste and decency was a tough job and nobody appreciated it. · The censorship mentality was still deeply embedded in a prudish and hypocritical society· He proceeded to tear up the books, pile them on the floor, take out a bottle of paraffin and a box of matches from his pocket. You can support the show here: https://www.patreon...2022-06-0230 minCensoredIndecent images: Harry Clarke and Georges RouaultMoving pictures (de filums) were heavily censored but the state didn’t officially scrutinise other visual art forms. Censure by covert means was the preferred method to control subversive art. Guest: Dr Róisín Kennedy author of Art and the nation state: the reception of modern art in Ireland (2021) · Part of the emotional response comes from a sense that modern art is conning us, hoodwinking us. Dr Róisín Kennedy· Censorship culture made access to visual art elitist. Dr Róisín Kennedy· The production of art in Ireland was directly affected by ce...2022-05-1946 minCensoredHero Worship: Roger Casement Part 2Everyone wanted a piece of Roger Casement but which piece? Carefully extracting his skeleton from heavy London mud in 1965 didn’t end the controversy over his life and lusts. · The treatment of Casement’s dead body was exceptionally cruel, even by the standards of executed prisoners.· Why are all our significant national events in March? Is there some penitential impulse forcing us to suffer for our patriotism?· After the burial of the great man in 1965, there little hope of anyone in Ireland reading his raunchy diaries, whether published or not.· The Roger Casem...2022-05-0526 minCensoredEnormous: Roger Casement's Diaries Part 1The scandal over Roger Casement’s diaries is huge. People have spent millions of hours of obsessing over whether diaries allegedly found in his personal papers were forgeries or not. It’s past time I read the smut and examined the censure of the man and his writings. Truly, he was the hottest martyr of the 1916 Rising – you could argue he was the finest half who ever laid down his life for the cause of Irish freedom.If you are looking for filth, you have to read a lot about gambling, sailing on ships and lost l...2022-04-2127 minCensoredFurious: O'Flaherty 'The Martyr' (1933)Liam O’Flaherty was the angriest Irish author of his generation who raged against ‘soutaned witch-doctors’ (Catholic priests). He believed his outspokenness provoked social censure so severe that his work could not be found anywhere in Ireland. Guest: Teresa Dunne He’s a great man for the description of breasts Teresa DunneI can’t believe we’re discussing whether holy medals count as a sex toy Aoife Bhreatnach You can support the show here: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpodAnd buy stickers here: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See...2022-04-0735 minCensoredContrabrand: The Bell Magazine (1940-54)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 Phyllis.boumans@kuleuven.be · 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. You can support...2022-03-2439 min
CensoredBurning the diabolical 'News of the World'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. You can support the show here: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod And buy stic...2022-03-1025 minCensoredBoycott: McNamara 'The Valley of the Squinting Windows' (1918)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. You can support the show here: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod And buy stickers here: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2022-02-2429 minCensoredRiotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907) Part 2After 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) HoustonIt all descends into pots calling kettles sexually disordered. Lloyd (Maedhbh) HoustonThe Abbey has a different function to commerc...2022-02-1738 minCensoredRiotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907) Part 1The 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) HoustonAnd then there’s Schrodinger’s parricide. Lloyd (Maedhbh) HoustonSynge presents them...2022-02-1042 minCensoredRage: O'Brien 'Girls in their Married Bliss' (1964)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. Subscribe on patreon https://www.patreon.com/censoredpodMerch store: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...2022-01-2031 minCensoredThrobbing: Hull 'The Sheik' (1919)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 TurnerContemporary reviewers did condemn the novel for its sexual content Ellen TurnerIt might be torture but it is quite nice, its exquisite Aoife Bhreatnach Subscribe on patreon https://www.patreon.com/censoredpodMerch store: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See a...2022-01-0637 minCensoredDreadfully Common: Maugham 'Cakes and Ale' (1930)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 Augu...2021-12-1632 minCensoredBlasphemy: Moore 'The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne' (1955)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 Join me on Patreon for show notes and unexpurgated guest intervie...2021-12-0243 minCensoredOh, James: Fleming 'Diamonds are Forever'‘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? Join me on Patreon fo...2021-11-1828 minCensoredDirty Foreigners: O'Brien 'The Lonely Girl' (1962)This novel is the further adventures of Caithleen and her sidekick Baba in the big city, as they search for fun, love and a free meal. A sequel to ‘The Country Girls’ (1960) it was automatically banned by a board who hated its author. · There was no such thing as a safe book. The Caithleens of Ireland – young women – were especially susceptible to notions.· Caithleen’s independent life outside her father’s control can be snuffed out at his whim.· The humour in the novel is really something, it’s magnificent. Join me on Patreon for sho...2021-11-0433 minCensoredObscene knowledge: Irish Family Planning Association 'Family Planning' (1976)Information about contraception or ‘family planning’ was illegal under the censorship act but weirdly, the censors banned this booklet for being ‘indecent or obscene’. What followed was a lengthy legal battle and a dent in the authority of the mighty censor. With guest, Dr Laura Kelly. ‘The IFPA felt there was a huge need for this booklet in Ireland.’ ‘What’s distinctly Irish about this is there’s no mention of things like abortion or sexual pleasure. You get those in British and American publications of the same time.’ ‘It’s lovely to th...2021-10-2138 minCensoredWanton: Powys 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (1927)What could be indecent in a novel about God as a travelling wine salesman? Apart from the blasphemy, there are dirty deeds done under the oak tree in Folly Down village. Join me on Patreon for show notes and unexpurgated guest interviews: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Check out my merch https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-10-0731 min
CensoredBottom wriggling: Anon 'The Memoirs of Dolly Morton' (1899)This ‘novel’ is an odd entry on the blacklist: why would censors in 1989 ban a publication from 1899? This antique erotica reveals a lot about 19th century kinks as well as the marketing strategies of smut merchants. Pity about the nauseating amounts of racism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-09-2337 min
CensoredDirty Irish Colleens:Part 1 of a deep dive into the early work of Edna O’Brien, whose work has infuriated people since 1960. How did The Country Girls become one of the most notorious Irish novels of the 20th century? Blacklisting made this coming-of-age novel and it’s young author wildly famous. So many myths surround The Country Girls that it’s past time to read the novel for filth and rate its rudeness. With Dr Maureen O'Connor. Join me on Patreon for show notes and unexpurgated guest interviews: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Check out my m...2021-09-0948 min
CensoredSqualid Glamour: Isherwood 'Goodbye to Berlin' (1939)This fine collection of stories about the Berlin’s bohemian underclass in Berlin probably annoyed the censors. If they had read it closely, the rent boys and loose women would have given them a collective coronary. Guest: Dr Jonathan Kemp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-08-0436 min
CensoredAll Cork: O'Faoláin 'Bird Alone' (1936)Seán O’Faoláin’s love letter to his homeplace, Cork city, was singled out for censorship in 1936. Being blacklisted provoked his career-long critiques of the Irish state. Was this atmospheric, sometimes nostalgic novel banned because of its author or its content? Guest: Dr Paul Delaney. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-07-2252 min
CensoredTeenage Rebel: Lessing 'Martha Quest (1952)Doris Lessing's radical politics scared the government of more than one country. This semi-autobiographical novel features an angry, impatient teenager growing up amidst the racial conflict in Africa.Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpodGet your merch here https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-07-0838 min
CensoredRevolutionary: Hansen and Jensen 'The Little Red Schoolbook' (1969)This little book was so dangerous that the French, British and South African governments joined the Irish censors in banning it. The blunt honesty about sex and drugs caused a global moral panic about childhood and innocence.Support the show with stickers or subs!Merch: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-06-2431 min
CensoredGirls, Girls: Mead 'Coming of Age in Samoa' (1928)When it was published in America, this popular anthropology book made its author famous. The censors ignored it for nearly 20 years, until they banned it in 1944. Maybe they finally noticed that Mead praised horny teenage girls.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpodMerch: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-06-1044 min
CensoredAll the antis: Shatter 'Laura' (1989)With unparliamentary sex and a tug-of-love legal battle, 'Laura' was a bestseller in 1989. So why on earth was it before the censors in 2013? It seemed very silly then but it appears more sinister now.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpodMerch: https://censoredpod.bigcartel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-05-2723 min
CensoredPhallic: Flynn 'My Wicked, Wicked Ways' (1959)Errol Flynn embodied swashbuckling masculinity in Hollywood of the 1930s yet his dissipation killed him at 50. His memoir was marketed as salacious but how rude could it really be?Merch: http://store.censored.ieSubscribe on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-05-1332 min
CensoredA New Woman: Baum 'Helene' (1928)Baum was a bestselling author of the 1930s who attracted the ire of the Irish censors. Helene is a romance about a struggling university student with a serious feminist message. If you love Evil Literature, check out my merch: http://store.censored.ieSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/censoredpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-04-2933 min
The Book ShowWith Joseph O'Connor, Dr Aoife Bhreatnach and Max Porter.Max Porter talks about The Death of Francis Bacon. Dr Aoife Bhreatnach is reading Ireland's formerly banned books to hunt out the filth, the muck and the downright indecent. Joseph O’Connor answers questions from the Charlie Byrne’s Book Club in Galway city about his novel Shadowplay.2021-04-1627 min
CensoredMollocking: Gibbon 'Cold Comfort Farm' (1932)How could this delicious literary parody be described as indecent? Only the Irish censors saw something nasty in a comic take on DH Lawrence and Jane Austen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-04-1531 min
Wide Atlantic WeirdIrish Burial Customs and 'Teig O'Kane and the Corpse' (with Dr Aoife Bhreatnach)'I FOUND it hard to place Mr. Douglas Hyde's magnificent story. Among the ghosts or the fairies? It is among the fairies on the grounds that all these ghosts and bodies were in no manner ghosts and bodies, but pishogues--fairy spells. One often hears of these visions of Ireland.'
Taking, of all things, the Hellboy story 'The Corpse' as a starting point, Cian is joined by Dr Aoife Bhreatnach from the Censored Podcast to talk about Irish burial customs, the stories of Douglas Hyde, changelings, folkloric moving graveyards, sectarian burial rivalries, Irish fairy lore, and lots...2021-04-101h 02
CensoredFecundshite: Joyce 'Ulysses' (1922)James Joyce went way beyond smut when he wrote Ulysses, an epic modernist masterpiece. The censorship history of Ulysses is as mind boggling as the author’s bloody-minded determination to offend. In a bizarre twist, this filthy book was never banned in Ireland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-03-1850 min
CensoredUnsuitable for Irish: bold books as GaeilgeThe scrutiny of the censor was confined to the English language. But work in Irish, the other language of the state, were also censored by editors, bureaucrats and catholic reactionaries. No language was allowed to explore scandalous ‘sex feelings’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-03-1140 min
CensoredThe McGahern Affair Part 2, the scandalOutrage over banned books was rare but this scandal had it all: a persecuted artist, overbearing clerics and legal reform. The Dark (1965) was a powerful book that helped change the censorship system. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-03-0436 min
CensoredThe McGahern Affair Part 1, the BookWhen The Dark was banned in 1965, John McGahern became the focus of a censorship controversy. But what about this coming-of-age novel irked the censors? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-02-2542 min
CensoredSexual Inversion: Hall 'The Well of Loneliness' (1928)Hall's queer text was at the centre of an English moral panic and censorship show trial. Why did the Irish censor prohibit a book that was effectively banned in Ireland anyway? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-02-1835 min
CensoredToo critical: O'Brien 'The Land of Spices' (1941)A censor called this book ‘unwholesome’ in parliament because it mentioned ‘sodomy’. But maybe O’Brien’s pointed criticism of nationalism was the real reason it was banned. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-02-1141 min
CensoredOriginal Sin: Spark 'The Bachelors' (1960)An entertaining and elegant look at singledom in London that challenged censor's ideas on sex and conception. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-02-0428 min
CensoredTorrid trash: Wheatley 'To the Devil a Daughter' (1953)Wheatley was a successful popular-fiction writer who was censored five times in Ireland. This spy thriller with a dash of Satanism is stuffed with reactionary xenophobic nonsense. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-01-2841 min
CensoredHex & Sex: Smith 'Passionate Witch' (1942)Only a truly paranoid censor would ban book this innocuous. But even barely there smut can give readers ideas... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-01-2138 min
CensoredRavishing: Anon 'The Lustful Turk' (1828)Why on earth was antique erotica, with its hilarious genital metaphors, censored in Ireland? This titillating text was officially 'obscene' for more than one hundred years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-01-1430 min
CensoredThe worst girl: Madonna 'Sex' (1992)With nudity, leather and simulated sex of all varieties, Madonna tried to 'de-sin' sexual expression. This photographic book provoked over-reactions in Ireland, Britain, France and America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2021-01-0724 min
CensoredRepublican Love Triangle: Broderick 'The Fugitives' (1962)An uncensored book that was full of sex, violence and subterfuge. How did Broderick get away with writing about gay, republican freedom-fighters? I don't know for sure, but I'm going to speculate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-12-0330 min
CensoredThick Thighs: O'Brien, 'At Swim Two Birds' (1939)O'Brien was that rare thing: an Irish writer who was never banned in Ireland. A book that was less a plot and more a conspiracy distracted the filthy-minded censors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-11-2630 min
CensoredMass Perversion: Comfort, 'The Joy of Sex' (1972)JoS was a bestselling sex guide that captured the spirit of the 70s sexual revolution. Although banned in Ireland, it was openly on sale. This is a complicated story of prohibited publications and outraged readers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-11-1935 min
CensoredCompulsive wanking: Roth 'Portnoy's Complaint' (1969)Why did the Irish censors ignore this spectacularly rude book? And why is this story of a sex-obsessed Jewish man so important in the history of censorship in Australia? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-11-1243 min
CensoredSatanic Love Triangle: Mannin, 'Lucifer and the Child' (1946)What happens when a child meets a horned man in a dark forest? A book that explores the nature of evil and decides that sex isn’t the problem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-11-0540 min
CensoredQueer, with cocktails: Moore, 'Chocolates for Breakfast' (1956)A candid, haunting novel about the coming-of-age of a teenage girl. Full of decadent sexuality that would have given the censors a fit of the vapours. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-10-2941 min
CensoredWar is hell: Boell, 'And where were you, Adam?' (1951)How did this subtle, refined war novel earn a ban? Perhaps faeces or war crimes were more offensive than barely-there sex. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-10-2233 min
CensoredUnzipped!: Collins, 'The Stud' (1969)The Stud is more silly than sexy and it's not the finest example of a bonkbuster. Why on earth would such a trashy, ridiculous book be banned when the censor ignored serious literary sex? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-10-1531 min
CensoredPerverty Stuff: Salinger, 'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951)Holden Caulfield's swearing and sex talk has offended many since 1951. Now a modern classic, what explains the enduring appeal of this poor little rich kid story? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-10-0843 min
CensoredSuch Badness: Hoult, 'There were no windows' (1944)Hoult was banned more often than any other Irish woman writer. Only a censor's beady eye can find filth in a novel about loneliness and dementia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-10-0127 min
CensoredVoluptuous Jazzing: McKay, 'Home to Harlem' (1928)A love letter to Harlem and its music, this book offended all kinds of people. McKay's honesty about sex was brave and inflammatory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-09-2425 min
CensoredLow and vulgar: Cross, 'The Tailor and Ansty' (1942)A little book of folklore that became infamous. It was debated in parliament where nationalists denounced the elderly couple who were the subject of the book. But was the bull/cow story really that rude? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-09-1750 min
CensoredThere's something about Mary: Donleavy 'The Ginger Man' (1954)I need to rant about Mary, one of many wronged women in 'The Ginger Man'. A confident woman with her own coalshed brought down by an abusive man. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-08-2717 min
CensoredFilth and Faeces: Beckett, 'More Pricks than Kicks' (1934)Even if the censors didn’t understand Beckett’s high-class smut, the lewd title was enough to get it banned. This short-story collection is stuffed with shit puns and blasphemy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-08-2051 min
CensoredRapey Noir: Keene, 'Sleep with the Devil' (1954)The censor hated Keene’s pulp noir, banning his work many times. This taut thriller was full of violence but it was also a morality tale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-08-1327 min
CensoredQueer Ireland: Broderick, 'The Pilgrimage' (1961)Is it a book about a promiscuous wife, a pilgrimage or queer life in 1960s Ireland? Banned for indecency and blasphemy, Broderick's short novel is a multi-layered text. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-08-0649 min
CensoredBestial Behaviour: Endore, 'The Werewolf of Paris' (1933)Endore combined violence and blasphemy in this classic of the werewolf genre. It’s hard to know whether the radical politics or freaky sex most offended the censor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-07-3021 min
CensoredLove, not sex: Wallace, 'The Chapman Report' (1961)America was horrified when the Kinsey report proved that women were sexually transgressive. Wallace’s book trashed Kinsey but it still too sexy for the Irish censor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-07-2330 min
CensoredLesbionic Lit: Highsmith, 'Carol' (1952)Is it a subversive lesbian romance or a psychological thriller? The hetronormative censor saw a dangerous text with a 'general tendency to deprave'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-07-1634 min
CensoredEvil Contraception: Stopes, 'Married Love' (1918)Marie Stopes' sex manual was banned for 50 years. Her promotion of contraception was radical in 1918 but it remained too controversial for the Irish state until 1980. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-07-0942 min
CensoredPure filth: Donleavy, ‘The Ginger Man’ (1955)Was it literature or porn? With sex on nearly every page, it wasn’t surprising this Irish novel was banned for decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-07-0237 min
CensoredThrusting ecstasy: Nin, 'A spy in the house of love' (1954)A novel that explores gendered notions of sex and love with some dodgy sex metaphors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-06-2527 min
CensoredA lot of ridin': Keane, 'Two Days in Aragon' (1942)A Big House novel where ordered tennis parties are subverted by fucking in the fields and bondage in the basement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-06-1831 min
CensoredWelcome to Season TwoFrom great Irish writers to sex manuals, Aoife Bhreatnach will search for smut in ten more banned books. Season two will include dodgy sex metaphors and werewolves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-06-1102 min
CensoredFreaky Foreigners: Murdoch, 'The Flight from the Enchanter' (1956)Why is so hard to find sex in a book saturated with sexual tension? Trigger-happy censors overestimated the filth in this rich and inventive novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-06-0430 min
CensoredAmoral sex: Huxley, 'Point Counter Point' (1928)One of the first books banned by the censor, this modernist classic is full of indecent and obscene ideas about sex. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-05-2828 min
CensoredBabes and Boobs: 'Pleasure Ground' (1961)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? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-05-2125 min
CensoredConvent Sex Crimes: 'The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk' (186)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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-05-1427 min
CensoredSex in Suburbia: Yates, 'Revolutionary Road' (1961)This classic American novel critiques marriage, gender roles and masculinity. Was it sex or reproductive choices that attracted the ire of the censor? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-05-0722 min
CensoredSex and Soldiers: Heller, 'Catch-22' (1961)Censored in America and Ireland, Catch-22 is a controversial modern classic. Does the shagging and violence titillate or make a point? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-04-3026 min
CensoredThe First Bonkbuster: Winsor, 'Forever Amber' (1944)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? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-04-2327 min
CensoredOne Little Orgy: Kerouac, 'The Dharma Bums' (1959)Was Jack Kerouac a pilgrim or self-obsessed misogynist? Featuring an indecent orgy in the name of religion, this book was censored in 1963. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-04-1624 min
CensoredSingle Girls, Shagging: Jaffe, 'The Best of Everything' (1958)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? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-04-0924 min
CensoredWhat a Wanker: Behan 'Borstal Boy' (1958)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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-04-0219 min
CensoredCensored TrailerFilthy-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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2020-03-2002 min