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Edna O’ Brien
Quiz: How much do you know about books that have been banned?
Even Edna O’Brien’s own mother censored The Country Girls.
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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