Irish Films: CENSORED
Rosemarie O Byrne (Film&TV Editor)
Censorship is a word we may associate with strict dictatorships and authoritarian governments with full control over the press, film and television. Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy took advantage of censorship as a tool to keep the perpetration of propaganda in motion. When we examine the idea of censorship in Irish film and TV, it strays far from the belief of a neutral, unassuming country, and does not quite align with the democratic people’s republic notion that is widely accepted. In fact, it challenges the accepted beliefs surrounding the way we perceive Irish screen media and has led me to wonder about why we had strict censorship laws in place which prevented many films and television series’ to be shown or screened on TV or in cinemas.
Peter Martin proposed that Irish censorship seems to modern eyes to be a confusing remnant of a history we would rather not remember. To think of the sheer volume of films and screen media that went amiss and lost all viewership due to censorship is perplexing. Martin states that censorship is a piece of "ancient Ireland," or an ‘old Ireland’ that was a less developed one, behind on the times and/or a conservative nation. He suggests that it's difficult not to feel a sense of embarrassment when you look at lists of films that are considered today to be classics, and realise that they were banned due to censorship. It's been about fifty years since film censorship faced backlash and the tide started to turn against it. Although politician Brian Lenihan reformed film censorship in 1964-65, there were still some controversial decisions being made, such as the banning of the films The Life of Brian, Natural Born Killers and Bad Lieutenant, but they have been (though intermittent and increasingly rare, Martin contends).
So, why was there such an insistence to control screen media? Film was seen as dangerous and influential, far too powerful of a medium to send wrong or inappropriate messages to the population and ‘not something Ireland stood for’. It was easier to maintain control over or influence the citizens of Ireland to sway to one political side when the complicated and powerful force of film was out of the way. Martin claims Irish film censorship was an integral part of the nationalist movement and worked in favour nationalist campaigners who were largely Catholic, laymen and priests. It's clear that the banning of certain films had a strong connection to the religious attitudes felt in the country at the time. When you take a glance at the list of films banned in Ireland, there is a clear pattern in the reason it was not allowed - it was a movie that did not project Catholic values, had demonic representations, associated itself with witchcraft or violence, committed heresy and or mocked Christianity and God. For example; Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, A Clockwork Orange and From Dusk til Dawn, to name a few, were banned for these reasons. Even the Disney classic Fantasia, which is an animated film for children got the axe for not complying with what film censors approved of.
Film censorship is unpopular for a myriad of reasons. Primarily because it infantilizes an entire population largely made up of adults who should have autonomy over their own decisions and this infantilization of them suggests they need babying and can’t be trusted to watch movies that are unsuitable and so the films must be banned altogether before they can make that choice for themselves. Additionally, the film censors of Ireland self admittedly knew little to nothing about movies. James Montgomery was a retired Dublin Gas Company employee who, like all film censors and appeals board members until the 1970s, had no film experience. James Montgomery played a key role in censoring films, but knew nothing about films at all. Instead he knew The Ten Commandments, which determined his role as censor. The censors acted as moral guardians, policing representations of sex, birth control, divorce and even dancing. Today we can enjoy films and watch them with a critical eye, however it wasn’t so easy to watch what you wanted then. Some argue screen media still suffers from censorship, it’s just a little harder to notice.
