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.
S8 E6 Seedy: Graham 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.
S8 E3 Seductive: Stella 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.
S7 E11 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 archival memory: Irish drama and marginalised histories 1951-77 (2022)
S7 E9 Indecent Images: Harry Clarke and Georges Rouault
Both these artists were renowned for their religious subject matter but they still offended important people.
S7 E8 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.
S7 E7 Roger Casement’s Diaries Part 1
The scandal over Roer Casement’s diaries is huge. It’s past time I read the smut and examined the censure of the man and his writings.
S7 E4 Burning the diabolical ‘News of the World’
The real truth about post-independence Ireland is that everyone was reading the British sleazy tabloid, the News of the World. Some people were determined to stop that.
S7 E1 & 2 Riotous: The Playboy of the Western World (1907)
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. This much-studied moment in Irish cultural history deserves a deep-dive into the play itself and the over-reaction to its performance.
With guest, Dr Lloyd (Maedhbh) Houston, I discussed the play and the uproar it caused, paying particular attention to drunken singing and the comedy act of one protestor, Mr Overcoat.
S6 E9 Throbbing: Hull ‘The Sheik’ (1919)
A thrilling desert romance that’s drenched in sex but wasn’t banned in Ireland. Great for the smut seekers, but terrible for anyone who didn’t appreciate a racist rape fantasy.
