February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The ban on more than 400 books which refer to abortion, contraception, or other family planning matters has been lifted by the Censorship of Publications Appeal Board following an appeal by five Labour Party TDs.
It is the single biggest un-banning of books since the censorship laws were amended in 1967 by then Justice Minister Brian Lenihan.
The prohibition orders covered a range of publications dating back as far as the 1930s.
After the new move fewer than 200 remain on the banned list.
Among those no longer banned are books like Simone de Beauvoir’s "Nature of the Second Sex" (1963), H G Wells’ "The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind" (1932), and Marie Stopes’ "Contraception" (1930).
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Also considered seditious and subversive of the public’s moral values were two issues of Old Moore’s Almanac from 1952 and 1964, the 1938 publication "Knowledge a Young Husband Should Have" and the 1958 Good Housekeeping Bride’s Book.
Many of the publications involved are thought to be out of print now.
Labour Health spokesperson Liz McManus said the books had been victims of a flaw in the legislation going back to the first Censorship Act of 1929.
It became law when the Committee on Evil Literature, set up in 1926, campaigned for legislation after it found that measures against "demoralising" publications and books was not sufficient.
The five TDs moved against the bans under a little used provision of the 1946 Censorship Act which requires an appeal from given members of the Oireachtas acting jointly.
Former Fine Gael junior minister George Birmingham chairs the five-member appeals board.
McManus explained that the law bans books under two headings.
Prohibitions are placed on works of fiction that are deemed indecent or obscene and that ban lapses after 12 years unless a new application is made to continue it.
The second kind of order involves publications which are deemed indecent or obscene and/or advocate the "unnatural prevention of conception or the procurement of abortion or miscarriage."
This ban does not lapse and can only be lifted by an appeals procedure.
"These were largely medical books which nowadays people would have absolutely no difficulty with at all. At no stage could they have been considered to have been obscene or indecent," McManus said.
"Very serious literary books were also covered by this ban because of the mention, reference or advocacy of family planning. It is a closing of an era in our history. It is extraordinary that it would take to the year 2000 to have Old Moore’s Almanac unbanned," she added.
The sale of contraception devices has been permitted in Ireland since July 1979.
Abortion is still illegal unless in certain limited circumstances where the life of the mother is threatened.