Ireland and British Censorship 1914-1921.
Control of the media as a key lever of state power
After the outbreak of World War I the United Kingdom passed the Defence of the Realm Act in 1914 (DORA). It imposed censorship of journalism and of letters coming home from the front line. DORA gave the British authorities in Ireland direct and indirect powers to repress, control, and manipulate media.1 Power was given to the military and police to seize and destroy printing machinery and type.2 The printing press of The Irish Worker, edited by James Larkin and James Connolly was dismantled and copies destroyed.
The British used DORA in support of the War effort and also to suppress Irish republicanism and promotion of the spirit of 1916. Prints of Walter Paget’s painting, The Birth Of The Irish Republic which shows the scene inside the GPO during the Easter Rising were forbidden. Donal Ó Drisceoil outlines the Irish republican press and its fight to continue distribution of newspapers and books in spite of British censorship. Christopher Doughan outlines the cases of provincial newspapers suppressed or subjected to attacks by Crown forces that resulted in prolonged closure. 3
Drisceoil Donal Ó. “Keeping Disloyalty within Bounds? British Media Control in Ireland, 1914-19.” Irish Historical Studies 38, no. 149 (May 1, 2012): 52–69.
Great Britain, and Charles Archer Cook. Defence of the Realm Manual. London, England: H.M.S.O., 1919.
Doughan, Christopher. 2018. “Censorship and Suppression of the Irish Provincial Press, 1914-1921.” Media History 24 (3/4): 364–78.
No country is immune from those who crave power above all else. However understandable, the violence of the Irish response was inexcusable. The attempt to control thinking in pursuit of power never turns out well.