1 May 1922: Dublin Corporation Calls for the Censorship of Films

Ireland 1922, edited by Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry, features 50 essays from leading international scholars that explore a turning point in history, one whose legacy remains controversial a century on. Building on their own expertise, and on the wealth of recent scholarship provoked by the Decade of Centenaries, each contributor focuses on one event that illuminates a key aspect of revolutionary Ireland, demonstrating how the events of this year would shape the new states established in 1922. Together, these essays explore many of the key issues and debates of a year that transformed Ireland.

In collaboration with Century Ireland, we are making the 50 essays freely available online. Today's essay is Kevin Rockett and it covers the motion that ‘Dáil Éireann be asked to appoint a Board of Censors for all Ireland’, which was passed on 1 May 1922:

On 1 May 1922 the motion that ‘Dáil Éireann be asked to appoint a Board of Censors for all Ireland’ was passed unanimously by Dublin Corporation. This request came twenty months after Dáil Éireann had considered the introduction of national film censorship, while a conference of anti-cinema activists held in Dublin in December 1921 had demanded that an independent Irish government introduce such a film censorship regime. These events were the culmination of campaigns by cultural, political and religious activists that had their roots in the late nineteenth-century agitation against what was perceived as immoral and anglicising imported popular culture and media. These campaigns acquired a new frisson with the increasing popularity of American cinema by the early 1910s. Continue reading (you will be redirected to the website of Century Ireland)

Ireland 1922, edited by Darragh Gannon and Fearghal McGarry, is published by the Royal Irish Academy with support from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme.