'Purely Sinn Fein Propaganda': The banning of ourselves alone (1936)

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Volumn 20, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 317-333

  Hill, John ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149373176     PISSN: 01439685     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01439680050127789     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. Charles Siepmann quoted in Rex Cathcart, The Most Contrary Region: the BBC in Northern Ireland 1924-1984 (Belfast, 1984), pp. 78, 3
2. Brian Desmond Hurst, Autobiography, unpublished, undated, p. 93, BFI library, London
3. For a discussion of BIP and Walter Mycroft's policy of 'cut-price window dressing', see Rachael Low, Film Making in 1930s Britain (London, 1985), esp. pp. 116-126
4. Full credits and a detailed plot summary may be found in Kevin Rockett, The Irish Filmography (Dublin, 1996), p. 139
5. According to the Board's President, Lord Tyrrell, in 1936, '[n]othing would be more calculated to arouse the passions of the British public than the introduction, on the screen, of subjects dealing with religious or political controversy', 'Film Censorship Today', paper read at the Summer Conference of the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 24 June 1936, p. 6
6. For discussion of the BBFC in the 1930s, see Jeffrey Richards, The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society 1930-1939 (London, 1984)
7. James C. Robertson, The British Board of Film Censors: film censorship in Britain, 1896-1950 (Beckenham, 1985), p. 86
8. BBFC Scenario Reports, 1933, 128, BFI library
9. BBFC Scenario Reports, 1935, 415
10. BBFC Scenario Reports, 1939, 28
11. BBFC Scenario Reports, 1934, 323
12. BBFC Scenario Reports, 1936, 119
13. These quotes are taken from publicity materials for the film, BFI library. There is, however, a haziness in evidence in this material which argues that 'the insurgents as well as the Black and Tans present their cases clearly'. In fact, the film is relatively unsympathetic to the Black and Tans, observed in an aggressive search of a public house, and they are differentiated from the more humane (and 'Irish') RIC
14. Neville March Hunnings, Film Censors and the Law (London, 1967), p. 102
15. Minutes of the Meeting of the Police Sub Committee, 28 October 1931. This was partly related to an apparent failure, on the part of Northern Ireland exhibitors, to prevent under-16s from attending films with an 'A' certificate
16. PRONI HA/32/1/518. Gordon Gillespie makes use of some of this material in a short essay, Celluloid controversies, Causeway, 4 (1) (1997), pp. 27-31. He appears, however, not to have looked at all the relevant files
17. Letter from Inspector General, Royal Ulster Constabulary to The Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, 17 December 1929, PRONI HA/321/1/569
18. Ivor Montagu, The Political Censorship of Films (London, 1929), p. 12. Insofar as some doubt has been cast on Montagu's claims, it would appear that the existence of the Scotland Yard warrants is not generally known
19. Letter from C. M. Martin-Jones to W. A. Magill, 29 March 1930, PRONI HA/321/1/569
20. Letter from Geo. A. Harris to Martin-Jones, 2 April 1930, PRONI HA/321/1/569
21. Letter from Home Office to G. A. Harris, 12 April 1930, PRONI HA/321/1/569
22. Secret memo from Ministry of Home Affairs to Inspector General, RUC, 13 June 1930, PRONI HA/32/1/640
23. Irish News, 24 May 1930, pp. 4, 5
24. George B. Hanna, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, 29 May 1930, Parliament of Northern Ireland, Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, House of Commons, Session 1930, vol. xii, col. 1630
25. See Arthur Aughey, 'Unionism', in Arthur Aughey and Duncan Morrow, eds, Northern Ireland Politics (London, 1996), p. 33
26. See Michael Farrell, Northern Ireland: the Orange State, 2nd edn (London, 1980), ch. 6, for the background to the 1935 riots
27. The closure of cinemas was reported in 'Riots force Belfast halls to close', Kinematograph Weekly, 25 July 1935, p. 19
28. Irish News, 25 September 1937, p. 5
29. Monthly Film Bulletin, 30 May 1936, p. 82
30. The London Reporter, 29 April 1936, p. 3
31. Film Weekly, 25 July 1936, p. 28
32. Irish Press, 14 July 1936, p. 5
33. Belfast News Letter, 26 November 1936, p. 10
34. For a fuller delineation of this argument in relation to British cinema, see John Hill, 'Images of violence', in Kevin Rockett, Luke Gibbons and John Hill, Cinema and Ireland (London, 1988)
35. Annette Kuhn, Cinema, Censorship and Sexuality, 1909-1925 (London, 1988), pp. 2-4
36. Northern Whig, 22 April 1932, p. 7