The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #26249   Message #692878
Posted By: GUEST,Roger O'K
18-Apr-02 - 11:25 AM
Thread Name: Banned Music?
Subject: RE: Banned Music?
Definition of "banned" is indeed the problem.

The Wolfe Tones were not played on RTE, the official semi-State broadcasting network in Ireland, for most of the last thirty years, and the successive governments of the times would not have been displeased, because they were seen to stir up anti-British passions and support for the IRA. Clearly there were station directives about this, because they were quite popular in the late 60s (and still are in some quarters although they have now been "decommissioned"). But it would be hard to establish whether the Government ever "made representations" to the station management. A government which controls the purse strings and enacted legislation to prohibit interviews with representatives of the IRA doesn't have to go as far as outright banning the Wolfe Tones' repertoire, especially as it knows that this would be counterproductive.

There is a recent thread on them.