Dr Brian Hughes, Lecturer in the Department of History at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), featured in an RTÉ report exploring the transfer of Ireland’s historic collection of banned books to the National Archives, where the collection will be made available for public viewing for the first time.
The collection comprises approximately 12,000 books dating from the 1930s to 1996, which were once prohibited under Ireland’s censorship legislation. Among them are well-known works by Irish writers Edna O’Brien and Brendan Behan, alongside thousands of lesser-known publications. The original censorship ledgers, detailing the reasons why individual books were banned, will also be made publicly accessible.
Speaking to RTÉ, Dr Hughes discussed the origins of Ireland’s censorship legislation, which date back to the 1920s, and the historical significance of the collection as a reflection of changing attitudes towards literature and morality, as well as the influence of the Catholic Church on Irish society.
Dr Hughes said:
“Anything that, for example, dealt with divorce, you know, a novel with divorce as part of the plotline, where there was adultery in the novel, anything to do with sexuality in any of this material would be banned.”
