Quiz: How much do you know about books that have been banned?

SIXTY YEARS AGO today Edna O’Brien’s groundbreaking novel The Country Girls was banned in Ireland.

O’Brien was paid a £50 advance for the novel, which she wrote in three weeks. When it was released it unleashed a storm of controversy that included book burnings, rosary recitations and a flurry of letters between high-ranking political and church figures.

This feverish activity quickly resulted in the book being banned. The censorship even stretched all the way to O’Brien’s own family, as the author wrote that her mother erased any offending words with black ink, and stashed the book in a bolster case in an outhouse.

Despite this frosty reception at home, the book received acclaim internationally. Its popularity has endured and last year the BBC included it in its list of ’100 Novels That Shaped Our World’.

So today we’re asking how much do you know about books that have been banned?

Who described The Country Girls as "a smear on Irish womanhood"?

Charlie Haughey

Éamon de Valera

Jack Lynch

Archbishop John Charles McQuaid

O'Brien's first ___________ novels were banned in Ireland.

PA

Two

Three

Five

Seven

Which of these other Irish writers saw their work banned?

Samuel Beckett

George Bernard Shaw

Sean O’Casey

All of the above

What Irish author lost their job as a teacher when their book 'The Dark' was banned on the grounds of obscenity?

Brian Moore

Jennifer Johnston

John McGahern

William Trevor

How many Irish language books have been outlawed?

Shutterstock

0

79

489

1,034

What was the name of the committee set up in 1926 to examine the censorship of printed matter?

The Committee on Reprehensible Books

The Committee on Wicked Publications

The Committee on Immoral Writings

The Committee on Evil Literature

Ulysses was never forbidden by Irish censors. But what country did ban it?

Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland

USA

France

Australia

UK

What book once achieved the unusual feat of being both the most banned and the second most-taught book in US high schools?

To Kill A Mockingbird

The Catcher in the Rye

1984

Of Mice and Men

Kern County in which US state was so offended by its portrayal in The Grapes of Wrath that it outlawed the John Steinbeck book?

Alaina Buzas

Oklahoma

Texas

New York

California

Finally, who described the list of Irish authors who'd penned forbidden works as "the best banned in the land"?

Brendan Behan

Myles na gCopaleen

Seamus Heaney

Frank McCourt

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