Censorship of Publications Act

Censorship of Publications Act (1929). The Act created a Board of Censors of the Irish State, and was used to ban all literature which made explicit references to human sexuality, as well as contraceptive methods. The effect was to restrict the realistic examination of Irish society by its writers. By 1940 the list of banned books included almost all the serious Irish writers of the period, as well as those of other countries. In 1967 a Bill was passed allowing for the unbanning of books after twelve years; gradually censorship relaxed in the 1970s and 1980s.