Censorship in the Republic of Ireland
In the early years of the state, censorship was more widely enforced, particularly in areas that were perceived to be in contradiction of Catholic dogma, including abortion, sexuality and homosexuality.
Indeed, until an authoritative pronouncement on the issue by the Supreme Court, many believed that the protection was restricted to "convictions and opinions" and, as a result, a separate right to communicate was, by necessity, implied into Article 40.3.2.
Due to the country's geographic and cultural closeness to the United Kingdom, Ireland has considerable strong access to the British media.
Whilst still theoretically censorable, newspapers and magazines are free to publish anything which does not break Ireland's tough libel or contempt of court laws.
The listing of periodicals under permanent banning orders as of 2007 includes many publications which have ceased to be published, as well as ones which are now sold freely without any realistic chance of prosecution, such as naturist magazine Health and Efficiency.
[17] In the 1960s, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid lobbied the Irish government to have pornography banned outright.
[22] For example, in 2017 radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta removed the track "C.E.A.R.T.A" by the Belfast Irish language rap group Kneecap from an afternoon programme's playlist due to the song's "drug references and cursing".
[29] When the British government in 1985 censor the publication of the memoirs of the MI5 spy Peter Wright in Spycatcher, on the grounds of national security, it was not applicable in Ireland and the controversy made the book a bestseller.
[31] It is the body that is authorised to regulated what can be broadcast on radio and TV on behalf of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
[32][33][34] News, current affairs programmes and chat shows are like newspapers, in that they are pretty much free to broadcast on anything, provided they don't break Ireland's strict libel and contempt of court laws.
[36] A significant quantity of audio-visual media in Ireland comes directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, and as such it is subject to British regulation and censorship.
O'Neill commented in his opinion, that the religious think tank, the Iona Institute, and two conservative journalists John Waters and Breda O’Brien of being homophobic.
Nevertheless, the pre-court settlement itself was harshly criticised by members of Oireachtas especially civil rights campaigner senator David Norris,[38] and MEP Paul Murphy.
[47] During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, from 1968 to 1994, censorship was used principally to prevent Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) interviews with spokespersons for Sinn Féin and for the IRA.
RTÉ's Kevin O'Kelly had reported on an interview that he conducted with the (Provisional) IRA Chief of Staff, Seán Mac Stíofáin, on the Radio Éireann This Week programme.
Soon afterwards, at the non-jury Special Criminal Court O'Kelly was jailed briefly for contempt because he refused to identify a voice on a tape seized by the Gardaí as that of Mac Stiofáin.
That prevented RTÉ from interviewing Sinn Féin spokespersons under any circumstances, even if the subject was unrelated to the IRA campaign in Northern Ireland conflict.
The 1973-77 Fine Gael/Labour Coalition Government also tried to prosecute the Irish Press for its coverage of the maltreatment of republican prisoners by the Garda Heavy Gang, with the paper winning the case.
That was not possible in Ireland where O'Brien's Section 31 Order, which remained in place until 1994, specifically banned 'reports of interviews' with spokespersons for censored organisations.
[55] The Section 31 broadcasting ban lapsed on 19 January 1994 because it was not renewed by Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Michael D. Higgins,[56] eight months prior to the August 1994 IRA ceasefire.
The last person censored under the lapsing Order in January 1994 was Larry O'Toole, who was banned from appearing in a joint RTÉ/Channel Four programme on the Northern Ireland conflict, chaired by Channel Four's John Snow.
In May 1992, Proinsias De Rossa leader of Democratic Left, subverted this ban by reading the offending telephone numbers into the Dáil record; because of his absolute privilege as a member of the Oireachtas, he avoided prosecution.
The common law offence of blasphemous libel, applicable only to Christianity and last prosecuted in 1855, was ruled in 1999 to be incompatible with the Constitution's guarantee of religious equality.
The advocacy group Atheist Ireland responded to the enactment by announcing the formation of the "Church of Dermotology" (named after Dermot Ahern, the minister who introduced the 2009 law).
[51] On the date on which the law came into effect, it published a series of potentially blasphemous quotations on its website and vowed to challenge any resulting legal action.
Following the overthrow of France and the Low Countries in May 1940, the British instigated full terminal mail censorship but the Irish were unable to look at more than about 10% due to the enormous staff this would have required.
[66]: 117–118 Since the 1990s, Ireland has rapidly developed from socially conservative, deeply religious Catholic-dominated state into a modern European, secular and liberal nation.
Due to Ireland’s old conservative censorship laws on pornography and the country's social conservatism, dedicated sex shops didn't exist until the establishment of Utopia in February 1991 in the town of Bray, County Wicklow.
Compared to the United Kingdom, where if a retailer who wishes to sell any kind of pornographic material such as magazines and DVDs, is required by law to be licensed by the local council with a sex establishment licence.
[81] There have been calls by both local residents and the then industry trade body, the Irish Association of Adult Shops to establish such a licensing system in Ireland.
