Abstract
Despite the great social and cultural changes that have occurred in Ireland since its independence in 1922 and the fact that the explosion in new technologies has both challenged film’s dominance and led to film no longer exclusively being presented in cinemas, the legislation governing the public exhibition of film in Ireland remains largely unchanged since 1923 when the Censorship of Films Act was introduced. According to the Act, anything “indecent, obscene or blasphemous” or “contrary to public morality” should be cut or banned altogether.1 As we approach the 90th anniversary of Irish film censorship, this chapter sets out to provide a historical and cultural overview of the Act. The chapter notes how conservative Catholic and secular liberal censors alike have sought to retain the Act’s anachronistic, and at times anomalous, key terms, and suggests that the Act has become increasing irrelevant, most especially so in the context of new distribution technologies and the consequent shift in viewing practices from within public spaces to private ones.
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Notes
For a more detailed account of the issues discussed, see Rockett, K. (2004) Irish Film Censorship: A Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
Cultural nationalism promoted Irish-Ireland sports, the restoration of the Irish language and activities such as Irish dancing, music, and drama.
This was only a few months after the Easter Rising, which heralded in eight years of intermittent war against the British occupation of Ireland and led to a civil war between nationalists and republicans over the partition of the country following the 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty.
For an account of Catholic film policies in this period, see Chapter 7 in Rockett (2004), Irish Film Censorship.
James Montgomery was a retired employee of the Dublin Gas Company, and, in common with all film censors and members of the appeals board until the 1970s, he had no background in film. He had the advantage over other candidates for the post of official Film Censor in being a friend of the minister for Home Affairs.
Robertson, J. C. (1989) The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action, 1913– 1972. London/New York: Routledge, p. 2.
For the history of the National Film Institute of Ireland, see Rockett, K. with E. Rockett (2011) Film Exhibition and Distribution in Ireland, 1909–2010. Dublin:Four Courts Press, Chapter 8.
official Film Censor’s reserve no. 9524, August 23, 1957, National Archives of Ireland. However, no certi?cate for the film seems to have been issued as the distributor perhaps withdrew the film rather than agree to the cuts.
official Film Censor’s reserve no. 7822-23, no. 25389, certi?cate issued on October 3, 1950.
Though the Irish have been regarded as among the greatest cinema-goers in the world (at present they are just above the European average)—a status also suggested by a dominant memory among many Irish people, especially prevalent in memoirs and in oral history projects for the interwar period—the reality of this does not stand up to scrutiny and in part was a consequence of long queues outside cinemas. However, these were largely for cheap seats with the (empty) dearer seats above the incomes of the majority of patrons. In the mid-1930s, for example, when Britons went to the cinema 22 times per annum, Irish people only went 6 times, and though Dubliners, who accounted for 60 percent of Ireland’s total box Office receipts, had an average of 23 annual visits, this was less than that of many major British cities.
Kevin Rockett to Minister for Justice, December 7, 1987, in Rockett (2004), Irish Film Censorship, p. 284.
Freaks had its video ban renewed in 1999 because it was deemed “grossly offensive” to disabled people. Also I Spit on Your Grave had its ban reconfirmed in 2010.
Of the 307 feature films certified for theatrical distribution in 2009, no film was banned; 103 (33.5 percent) had 15A certi?cates; 72 (23.5 percent) were G (General) or PG (Parental Guidance); 57 (18.6 percent) were limited to over 16s; 56 (18.2 percent) had 12A certi?cates; while only 19 films (6.2 percent) had over 18s certi?cates. Videos for the same year were certified as 1839 (27.4 percent) for 15 year olds; 1468 (21.9 percent) for 12 year olds; 2964 (44.3 percent) G or PG; and 419 (6.2 percent) for over 18s.
See the Irish Film Classification Office’s website, www.ifco.ie
These might include parents working outside the home, or, at another level, embracing the relatively recent ideas of the entitlement to quality “me” time, and that children are best served by having independence foisted on them instead of guiding them to that point in a supervised and directed environment.
See National Children’s Consultation and the Internet, Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 2011, accessed at http: www.ispcc.ie/Media/ Publications October 2011.
Facebook is the most popular SNS in Ireland with 34 percent of 9–16 year olds using it compared to the next highest, Bebo, which has 22 percent of this age cohort, while 41 percent do not use SNS. See EU Kids Online, www.eukidsonline.net
Growing Up in Ireland, National Longitudinal Study of Children: The Lives of 9-Year Olds (2009), Dublin, Stationery Office, pp. 122–123.
See note 17.
Growing Up in Ireland, National Longitudinal Study of Children: The Lives of 9-Year Olds (2009), Dublin, Stationery Office, pp. 118–123. It should be noted that televisions and VCR/DVDs in bedrooms, and the amount of time spent playing video games, was greatest among lower income groups and in one-parent families.
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© 2013 Daniel Biltereyst and Roel Vande Winkel
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Rockett, K. (2013). Irish Film Censorship: Refusing the Fractured Family of Foreign Films. In: Biltereyst, D., Winkel, R.V. (eds) Silencing Cinema. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137061980_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137061980_13
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