Irish Film Censorship A Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography

by Rockett, Kevin

• ISBN13: 9781851828449
• ISBN10: 1851828443
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-10
• Publisher: Four Courts Press

Summary

This book maps the history of Irish film censorship from its origins in the 1910s, through to the all-encompassing Censorship of Films Act 1923, the more liberal implementation of screening policies from the late 1960s onwards, and present-day concerns about media proliferation and distribution. Its main focus is on the 1920-70 period, when Irish film censors banned 3,000 films and cut an additional 10,000. The role of political censorship and its effect on television and cinema is examined, as are the more contemporary issues of video classification and debates around the internet and child pornography. Through the examination of over 18,000 of the censors decisions, Kevin Rockett provides an invaluable insight into the cultural geography of Ireland. - Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2005

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	7	(3)
Acknowledgments	10	(1)
Preliminary Notes	11	(2)
Introduction	13	(6)
A Clash of Popular Cultures	19	(12)
Setting the Agenda	31	(32)
Origins of film censorship in Ireland	31	(13)
The Irish Vigilance Association and Dublin Corporation film censorship	44	(7)
Dublin Corporation film censorship, 1916--1923	51	(7)
Towards national film censorship	58	(5)
Free Expression in a Free State?	63	(46)
Censorship of Films Act, 1923: the political consensus	63	(7)
Ireland's Film Censors	70	(3)
The family as the unit of the state	73	(9)
The censors defend the Catholic church	82	(3)
The Censor's desire: `semi-nudity,' `ballets' and `nightclub life'	85	(3)
The Irish cinema audience	88	(3)
The Censor's treatment of Irish subjects	91	(2)
Sound cinema and narrative continuity	93	(4)
The `Clean Screen' campaign and Ireland	97	(8)
James Montgomery's legacy	105	(4)
Orthodoxy Maintained	109	(44)
Resistance to change	109	(5)
The old reliables	114	(5)
Richard Hayes and religion	119	(5)
Film noir and `hard-boiled' thrillers	124	(6)
Tennessee Williams and the censors	130	(6)
Martin Brennan: the shortest-serving censor	136	(6)
1950s youth culture and Irish film censorship	142	(4)
Rock `n' roll and Elvis' pelvic gyrations	146	(7)
From Protectionism to `Liberalism'	153	(44)
Peter Berry and film censorship	153	(5)
Horror films	158	(17)
Art cinema and Irish censors	175	(12)
The public struggle for limited certificates	187	(10)
The Film Censors and the New `Liberalism'	197	(66)
The Appeal Board and limited certificates, 1965--1972	197	(24)
Sex films and the Irish experience	221	(8)
Forbidden words	229	(7)
Dermot Breen, Frank Hall and Catholicism	236	(10)
Sheamus Smith: Irish film censorship's first liberal?	246	(13)
John Kelleher and consumer choice	259	(4)
Electronic Media and Film Censorship in Ireland	263	(54)
Television	263	(8)
Video	271	(22)
Moral panic in the 1990s -- the internet, child pornography and the commodification of childhood -- and conclusions	293	(24)
Film Censorship and Irish Politics	317	(55)
Irish republican responses to `imperialist' films	318	(8)
The British Board of Film Censors and Ireland	326	(6)
The `Emergency' and Irish film censorship, 1939--1945: newsreels	332	(13)
The `Emergency' and fiction films	345	(10)
The Irish Film Society and the `Emergency'	355	(8)
Political censorship of Irish broadcasting	363	(9)
Appendix	372	(5)
Notes	377	(86)
Select Bibliography	463	(2)
Index of Film Titles	465	(11)
General Index	476