Editing Committee on Evil Literature (section)

==1926 committee==

The committee of three laymen and two clergymen, one [[Roman Catholic]] and one [[Church of Ireland]], met at 24 Kildare Street, [[Dublin]], between February and December 1926 to hear and consider submissions from a variety of sources, including the [[Garda Síochána|Garda]], secular and religious organisations and members of the public, and reported to O'Higgins on 28 December. Its findings were that existing laws were inadequate to deal with obscene material and that the state had a duty to enforce controls on the production and distribution of obscene and "morally corrupting" literature. It also recommended the establishment of a [[Censorship of Publications Board (Ireland)|censorship board]].

The opinions of the committee, and those who submitted evidence to it on what should be banned, ranged very widely. Publications that the Roman Catholic Church considered to be obscene included the newspapers ''[[News of the World]]'', ''[[The Sunday People|The People]]'', ''[[Sunday Chronicle]]'' and ''[[Daily Mail]]'', and the magazines ''[[Vogue magazine|Vogue]]'', ''[[Woman's Weekly (UK magazine)|Woman's Weekly]]'', ''[[The Woman's World|Woman's World]]'', ''[[Illustrated Police News]]'' and most girls' picture papers.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} The objection to the more populist newspapers appears to have been that their detailed reporting of murders and other violent crimes depraved the readers. All [[birth control]] literature was also considered to be obscene. Other examples of obscene literature submitted to the committee ranged from photographs of dancers to advertisements for [[depilation|depilatory cream]].

The Committee on Evil Literature ceased to exist once its report was completed and presented to the Minister for Justice on 28 December 1926.