Top ten movies banned in Ireland - SEE VIDEOS

Ten movies that the Irish censors blocked from Ireland's cinemas

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"The Life of Brian": Eric Idle and Graham Chapman in the famous "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" scene.

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Similarly "The Meaning of Life" was banned for similar reasons. Again the highly irreverent movie did not go down well with religious groups particularly the musical sketch, starring Michael Palin, singing "Every Sperm is Sacred".

7. Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994)

This Oliver Stone movie tells a story about a couple on a murderous rampage. Stone attempted to defend the movie explaining that it was a satire on how the news media can turn serial killers into celebrities.  Although the censor never gave a reason it was banned in Ireland for many years.

8. Rocky Road to Dublin (Peter Lennon, 1968)

This documentary film on the contemporary state of the Republic of Ireland asked the question "what do you do with your revolution once you've got it?" Although the movie was never banned the Irish government did prevent it from being screened by the state broadcaster, RTE.

Having been accepted to the 1968 Canne Film Festival and Cork Film Festival agreed to screen the movie. Peter Lennon then set up his own private screening. This was followed by a Dublin cinema giving it a seven week run with packed audiences.

9. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)

Charlie Chaplin's movie satirized Nazism and Adolf Hitler and was popular with the American public and in Britain. However during production it was planned that the movie would be prohibited in keeping with Britain's appeasement policy concerning Nazi Germany. The movie had been banned in many parts of Europe but the owner of London's Prince of Wales Theater screened it first and was fined for doing so. It became Chaplin's highest grossing film.

10. Ulysses (Joseph Strick, 1967)

An adaptation of James Joyce's great work the movie starred Milo O'Shea as Leopold Bloom, Barbara Jefford as Molly Bloom, Maurice Roëves as Stephen Dedalus, T. P. McKenna as Buck Mulligan and Sheila O' Sullivan as May Golding Dedalus. Fred Haines and Joseph Strick received an Oscar nomination for their screenplay.

The book had been at the center of controversy since its initial publication in 1922 and was banned for over a decade in the U.S. When his movie was banned in Ireland Strick said "I knew what kind of material I was choosing…but I was still surprised at the intensity of the reactions to the film. In Ireland the book had never been banned, but the film wasn't passed there until 2000."

SEE VIDEO - Clips from the top ten movies banned in Ireland

Read more: The worst Irish accents in Hollywood movies

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