Ireland, the Autobiography by John Bowman

Author:John Bowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844882830
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

A polite request to His Grace

Brian Lenihan (1964)

As a young minister for justice, Brian Lenihan was a leading reformer in liberalizing the censorship laws. But he still reckoned that it would be prudent to ask the Archbishop of Dublin to make a nomination to the Censorship of Films Appeal Board, in the following letter.

It has been evident for some little time that the Board as at present constituted is no longer a proper court of appeal and does not command public respect for its decisions. I am aware that some of the members are very advanced in years, some hard of hearing, some, evidently, do not understand the import of some of the film scenes at all, some have been noticed to doze during film-showing and, finally, decisions have been made with only a small number of members present at appeals. It is in these circumstances that I have felt it necessary to reconstitute the Board, a decision which when publicised by newspapers was misinterpreted.

I have acknowledged in Dáil Éireann the Government’s indebtedness to the outgoing Members for their services. I have come to the conclusion, however, that the public interest requires that great care be taken in the selection of new members. I hope to have acceptance of nomination from two (perhaps, three) members of the judiciary, one of whom will act as chairman, from an eminent psychiatrist, from a well-known film critic of an Irish Catholic publication, from a retired civil servant whose work entailed a study of the causes and means of prevention of juvenile delinquency, from a housewife of education and understanding. In short, I hope to appoint a Board whose decisions will command general respect. I should be greatly obliged if Your Grace would make a nomination.

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