Indecent film and literature:Playboy magazine had not yet reached these shores and the internet was only on the cusp of being invented but there were still enough complaints about pornography in Ireland in the early 1970s to fill several Government files.
One file shows that a senior civil servant was surprised to receive a letter to his home from the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, complaining about pornographic films.
Archbishop McQuaid wrote to the home of Peter Berry, secretary at the Department of Justice, enclosing a brochure which had been given to him by a chemist. The brochure promoted adult home movies such as Little Miss Muff-it, The Secretary's Secret and Stripped for Action with Jane Blonde, special agent 008. The actresses were in various states of undress in the brochure.
"A chemist sent on this brochure, saying it has been sent to all chemists selling photographic material," Archbishop McQuaid wrote. "It should be possible to block the entry of this type of merchandise."
Mr Berry replied that while the brochures may have slipped through the post undetected, it was unlikely that the films would get through. He sent the letter to the Minister for Justice for his information and added a handwritten note.
"It is rather curious that his grace should write to my home. This is my first contact with him in 1965. [ This was July.] At one time he used to phone me and write to me about all sorts of problems."
An earlier letter was sent from the archbishop's secretary complaining about three issues of News of the World in 1962.
One referred to "the April Ashley story", which was a report about a sex change, while another memo intriguingly referred to "the cheesecake photographs" as a possible reason for banning the newspaper when taken in conjunction with the sex change story.
After being advised that a complaint to the Censorship Board was unlikely to be upheld, Mr Berry wrote back to Archbishop McQuaid's secretary, Fr James MacMahon.
"As a follow-up to our correspondence I should like you to know that I have read (distasteful task) the issues of the News of the World since 10th June. I regret to say that while the paper published offensive, vulgar matter, I have come to the conclusion that the Censorship Board would not regard the publications as meriting the issue of a prohibition order."
A file on censorship also contains numerous complaints from Irish Countrywomen's Association guilds about the sale of banned books in Ireland. Dollymount Guild ICA wrote to "deplore the ever-increasing flow of pornography into this country". It called for a full-time Censorship Board, citing long delays in banning books.
In an information note for the Minister for Justice, an official noted that a very high proportion of paperback novels produced in England and America "have lurid covers even where the contents are harmless. This is a comparatively recent trend - and are books to be banned or prosecutions taken simply for showing nudes on the covers? The board obviously doesn't think so and prosecutions would almost certainly fail."
The files also contain an Irish Independent article in 1970 which quotes Dáil deputy Dr David Thornley complaining about pornographic magazines on sale in the streets for about three shillings. "They are filled with sick sex and pornography from cover to cover and would not be tolerated in many parts of Britain," he said.
The author of the article, Eric Hicks, linked the shortage of women in Ireland with the rise in porn. "Possibly the serious shortage of young women in the Republic is a not wholly irrelevant factor. Catholic priests in England are being asked to persuade immigrant Irish girls to return home because of the serious shortage of young unmarried women," he wrote.
