Looking for filth on screen - how the Irish film censor’s role has changed

Film classification: from puritanical panic to anything goes

Listen | 20:26
Rude: Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo: IFCO gave Poor Things an 18 cert
Rude: Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo: IFCO gave Poor Things an 18 cert

For many decades the Irish film censor was an enthusiastic editor of movies – insisting that scenes he (it’s always a man) judged to be unsuitable for Irish cinema goers be cut. The censor also banned several others – though some were “unbanned” as the years went on. It could be for any reason – violence or danger, though the office was particularly keen on protecting Irish people from sex.

Irish Times chief film correspondent Donald Clarke trawls through the archives to explain how films are classified, why the office of the Irish film censor changed to film classification – and why in this digital age films are still age rated.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan.

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast