Under the headline were photographs of the victorious party’s posters in Ennis which
Ennis which, if examined, take some of the gilt off its gingerbread.
They claimed they had questions to ask Eamon de Valera. But when he appeared in
Ennis, to address the electors, and presumably answer THEIR questions, shots were
fired over his platform and he was arrested and imprisoned by the Free State Army.
De Valera had been elected for East Clare in 1917, 1918 and 1921 when British
Censorship, under the Defence of the Realm Act attempted (without success) to
suppress republican manifestos and publicity. Cumann na nGael was no less
an enemy of free expression.
From 1917 to 1957 De Valera was re-elected for Clare (first under the First Past the
Post system), and, under PR topping the Poll, in every election for Dail Eireann. In
1959 after 42 years as an MP/TD Dev was elected for the first of two consecutive 7 year terms as President of Ireland. Despite 56 years of unbroken democratic
questions, Free State Soldiers fired over his platform and arrested him. He was
reelected in 1923, and in every General Election until 1957 remaining in the Dail
until 1959 when he was elected to the first of two consecutive seven year terms as
President of Ireland.
In 1917, 1918 and 1921 British Censorship suppressed republican election manifestos
and held numerous candidates in gaol.
Today British censorship is, if anything more draconian, both in Britain and the world.
During the Cold War one could listen to Moscow Radio English Language Broadcasts.
But the excellent Russian language RT is unavailable tday. As is ALJAZEERA , 170 of
whose heroic reporters and photographers have been murdered by genocidal monsters,
I think it was 1923 when the Free State brought in censorship for non-political literature.
the Senate, W.B. Yeats made a damned fool of himself representing the measures
as Catholic measures to curb Protestant geniuses such as himself and his tradition. Perhaps he had a point. The Brits banned Ulysses by a Catholic upstart whose work was never banned by the Free State.
Any pietistic Philistine could bother the Censorship Board by complaining that rude words racy stories were a public danger. Frank O’Connor’s “Kings, Lords and Commons” with English translations of Gaelic poems over many centuries was banned for its translationof Brian Merriman’s 18th Century Satire “Cuirt an Mhean Oiche” which had delighted of Irish speakers.
And Brendan Behan’s BORSTAL BOY, a truly brilliant and deeply moving story was banned for “bad language.” Behan had a musician’s ear for language. He could reproduce on the printed page every accent and idiom and dialect in England.
I read it in Ireland and bought my first copy of it in London on my first visit there in
September 1964. Getting off the Mail Boat at Dun Laoghaire, I hid the volume under
a newspaper which I tucked under my Oxter. The Customs Officer confiscated it.
Twentyone years earlier on that same spot, a Customs Officer, reading the British
Home Office Certificate of release from Borstal, addressed Brendan Behan in Irish,
suggesting it must be great to be free. Answering in the same language, Brendan said “it must be.”
I’VE MADE A MESS OF THE ABOVE .
SORRY.
I INTEND TO SUBMIT A SUBSTITUTION, WHICH WILL REQUIRE MY WRITIN IN LONGHAND
WHAT I MEANT TO PRESENT, TRANSCRIBING THE LONGHAND INTO TYPESCRIPT AND LABELLING THE RESULT
CENSORSHIP; Part 1 Amended,