Earlier in to-day's proceedings I had occasion to address a question to the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures, in which I asked him if he would state whether the publication of the Annual, 1944, which is published by Brian O'Higgins, has been prohibited by the Controller of Censorship; if so, if he would state the grounds on which such decision was made, and whether he is now prepared to permit the publication of the Annual, which has appeared regularly since 1932, and consists in the main of quotations from, and historical records of, leaders of Irish nationalism. To that question I received a reply from the Minister, which was as follows:—
"The answer to the first part of the Deputy's question, is, yes.
In regard to the second part, it is not proposed to release the Annual for publication as it contravenes the Emergency Powers Order, 1939. It contains much more than quotations from historical records; it attempts to destroy the unity which Tone sought to establish and to justify the use of violence against the State established by the Irish people under the Constitution freely enacted by them and freely changeable at their will; it does this at a time when it was never more necessary for Irishmen not to dissipate their energy in internecine strife but to stand shoulder to shoulder in disciplined comradeship in order to defend the national territory which has been liberated and to hold it as an earnest of the re-union of all our territory."
In a Supplementary Question I asked the Minister to indicate to what portion of the publication objection was taken, so that the author would have an opportunity of amending it, if he wished to do so, and the Minister indicated that he was not prepared to do that. I want to submit to this House that, as regards this particular case, we have probably the most gross abuse of the powers of censorship which were given by this House to, and exercised by, the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures. I say that on the following grounds: First of all, those powers were given, specifically, for the protection of this State against external enemies, and I want to submit that in this case there is not one single item in the whole of this publication which the Minister could publicly indicate to be a danger to the State, so far as any of the particular issues in which we are involved at the moment are concerned. The reason we are not prepared to give him authority to use these powers—namely, the powers and duties of censorship—is that the Minister is not in a position to show the House where censorship can be properly applied, and has to fall back on powers of suppression.
When this matter was brought to the attention of the author, he wrote, quite properly, to the Controller of Censorship and asked to be informed what portions of the publication were objected to, but the Minister had not the courtesy to reply. However, he sent a letter, through his secretary, which I will read. It is very brief, and is as follows:—
"I have your letter of the 22nd instant, asking why the Wolfe Tone Annual was stopped by the Censor, and I am directed by the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures to reply as follows:
Briefly, it was stopped because it seeks during the present emergency to promote among Irishmen that spirit of factionalism and violence, one against the other, which Tone sought to abolish but which it was ever the aim of the enemies of the Irish people to foster by every means and device.
This spirit, engendered by foreigners, played havoc with the interests of the Irish people even before Sir George Carew wrote:
‘And also it was thought no ill policy to make the Irish draw blood one upon another whereby their private quarrels might advance the public service."
I suggest that when we make a comparison between a statement made by Sir George Carew and the publication of this Annual by Brian O'Higgins, we have reached the height of absurdity, however we may disagree with Mr. O'Higgins. I challenge the Minister to go through the Annual and indicate to this House what part of that publication has caused or is likely to cause, in his own words, disunion among our people here. The annual is devoted mainly, and I might say particularly, to the things that the Taoiseach himself has been advocating during the last few weeks, such as the furtherance of the Irish language and our native culture. I am not one who agrees with Brian O'Higgins, but I do challenge any member of the Fianna Fáil Party to come in and say here that he can justify the action of the Minister in this connection, because, if he does so, he is repudiating the whole basis on which that Party is supposed to be built, namely, that the Government and members of the Fianna Fáil Party are men who are devoted to the principle of Irish nationality, to the principle that we should have a united and independent country, and also devoted to the interests of the Irish people, which includes the furtherance of the Irish language and Irish history.
Those historical records are quite correct and, possibly, they might hurt the feelings of some of the people here, but I suggest that in our Constitution we are guaranteed at least the right to express our opinions, particularly when, in the expression of such opinions, there is no reference to any member of the Government or to the Constitution, and I submit that if it were possible to set up any machinery by which this matter could be examined—not by Deputies on these benches, but by members on the opposite bench—it should be availed of so that the members of the Fianna Fáil Party would realise the extent to which the powers of censorship are being abused. Furthermore, if this incident is to be allowed to pass unchallenged —the incident of the suppression of this one publication—it is not very difficult to foresee that that kind of thing will be extended and applied to many other forms of activity in this country.
It is useless for the Minister to say that he can stand on the record of the Censorship Office during the past four years. I suggest that the action he has taken in this matter reflects on the whole activity of the Office of Censorship here and the manner in which the Minister is exercising his powers, and I leave it to the members of this House, especially members of the Fianna Fáil Party, and particularly those who wear the Fáinne, to determine whether what I say is correct or not.
