In 1928, Bernard Shaw wrote that Ireland's Censorship of Publications Bill represented 'the establishment of a Censorship extending in general terms to all human actions, but specifically aimed at any attempt to cultivate the vital passion of the Irish people or to instruct it in any function which is concerned with that passion. It is, in short, aimed at the extermination of the Irish people as such to save them from their terror of life and of one another.' (1) His first foray into the Irish censorship debate was late in coming: the parliamentary-appointed Committee on Evil Literature had sat and reported in 1926 and much of the war had long since been waged in the press. In fact, censorship was already institutionalized: the Censorship of Films Act was passed into law in 1923 and an amended version followed in 1925. Film legislation was enacted earlier, according to Kevin Rockett, because it was relatively easy to control film distribution and the licensing of cinemas. (2) Procensorship lobby groups then used the film censorship as a steppingstone in their war against 'evil' literature. (3) It could therefore be argued that the Censorship of Publications was more or less a fait accompli before the public debates around the Bill even began; the only issue by this time was what form the institution would take. But the infamously combative Shaw had long dealt with censorship controversies and the opportunity to ring in on the subject as it was being discussed in his native Ireland was too tempting to pass up. Despite the efforts of Shaw and other concerned individuals, the Censorship of Publications Bill was enacted with the support of the majority of Irish popular opinion on July 16 1929, 'to make provision for the prohibition of the sale and distribution of unwholesome literature.' (4) It created the five-member Censorship Board that, according to Article 6.1, could ban a book if it 'is indecent or obscene or advocates the unnatural prevention of conception or the procurement of abortion or miscarriage or the use of any method, treatment or appliance for the purpose of such prevention or such procurement.' To clarify matters, 'indecent' was defined 'as including suggestive of or inciting to sexual immorality or unnatural vice or likely in any other similar way to corrupt or deprave.' (5) In arriving at decisions, the Censorship Board was also permitted to consider 'the literary, artistic, scientific or historic merit or importance and the general tenor' of the book, the language in which it was written, and its potential circulation and 'class of reader.' (6)
