THE CENSORSHIP IN IRELAND

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 218, 11 June 1929, Page 12

THE CENSORSHIP IN IRELAND

INSTRUCTIONS TO BOARD. .4’ The Censorship of Publications Bill, in a form very much amended and improved from the shape in which it was first presented, has passed the Dail (says the “Irish Statesman”). The first incredible definition of indecency, which, if It meant anything, meant that any expression 'of love between man and woman was an impropriety, has gone, and a defensible interpretation of the word “indecent” has been substituted.. The journal remarks that originally the Bill would have allowed the' censors to range over the whole field of thought; with authority to prohibit books dealing with science, philosophy, politics, as well as literature in general, on the vague grounds that the ideas in them tended to be detrimental to public morality. “The censors are now instructed to take into account the literary, artistic, scientific, or historic merit or importance of a book; the language in which it is written; the nature and extent of the circulation which, in the opinion of the board, the book is intended to have; the class of reader who might reasonably he expected to reach such books; or any other relevant matters. The board shall consist of nine members, and seven of these must agree before a book can be condemned. These precise instructions remove the greatest flaws in the bill."