Lust: 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...
15 Sep 202233min
Evil Literature: languages of censorship
The 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...
18 Aug 20221h 1min
The Bishop and the Nightie (1966): censure in televison
The 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...
14 Juli 202241min
Playing politics: censure in theatres
Theatre 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 archiva...
16 Juni 202234min
Morally healthy: censure in libraries
When 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 arbit...
2 Juni 202230min
Indecent images: Harry Clarke and Georges Rouault
Moving 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: ...
19 Maj 202246min
Hero Worship: Roger Casement Part 2
Everyone 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 Ca...
5 Maj 202226min
Enormous: Roger Casement's Diaries Part 1
The 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 ...
21 Apr 202227min
