On this day in 1960, Ireland bans sales of Clare author Edna O’Brien’s ‘The Country Girls’.
Because of graphic sexual content and frank treatment of women’s attitudes toward sexuality, O’Brien’s first novel is banned with six of her subsequent works meeting the same fate.
Edna O’Brien was born in 1930 at Tuamgraney, a place she would later describe as “fervid” and “enclosed.”
She has been described by American novelist Phillip Roth as “the most gifted woman now writing in English” while the first female President of Ireland, Mary Robinson brander her “one of the great creative writers of her generation.
‘The Country Girls is credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues in the country. The Irish censorship board banned the text upon its publication.
Ms O’Brien now resides in London.