Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A book was banned in the 1930s because it referred to a navel. At the time we had a completely different society. We have had profound social change in this country in the last 20 years, not to mind the last 60 or 70 years. Not too far from where you and I live is a beautiful townland called Garrynapeaka, outside Gougane Barra, and a lovely homestead of the tailor Buckley and his wife, Anastasia. A book was written by Eric Cross and published in 1942 called The Tailor and Ansty. It was banned by the Censorship of Publications Board and was also the subject of a hugely divisive and controversial Seanad debate. A motion was passed that still needs to be rectified. I was in the Seanad for two terms and I regret the fact that I never attempted to amend the record, but that book was about simple country life. The parish priest called and demanded they burn the book. The book was banned and it remained in force until the late 1960s, and that era always intrigues me. Any time I go to Gougane Barra for a drive I point out the cottage in which the tailor and his wife lived. His granddaughter is a neighbour of mine and we are close family friends. I find it intriguing to this day to think that an organ of the State, and an Act of the State, would ban a book that was so innocent in depicting rural life. In the books he mentions the sow farrowing, and this was considered to be complete heresy for those of conservative views.