The subject joke may be too subtle. — Dan

In 1942, Warner Bros. Pictures released Casablanca, one of the most iconic films in history. The movie is a wartime romance about an American nightclub owner in Morocco who must choose between personal love and helping a resistance leader escape the Nazis. Made during World War II, the film also helped reinforce for audiences that the Nazis were the villains — cruel, oppressive, and worth resisting. It’s no surprise that it became a global sensation throughout the English-speaking world.

But audiences in Ireland saw something different. Or rather, they saw nothing at all.

On March 19, 1942, Irish censors banned Casablanca outright. The reason wasn't the romance, the gambling, or even the gunplay. It was the politics — and, specifically, for portraying Nazis in an unfairly negative light. While most of the world had guns pointed at one another by that point, Ireland had declared itself neutral during World War II. And as the Independent reported, the government enforced that neutrality with an almost obsessive rigor. The Emergency Powers Order prohibited any media that might be seen as favoring one side over the other. And Casablanca, with its heroic resistance leader, its villainous Nazi officers, and its portrayal of Vichy France in what censors called a "sinister light," was deemed Allied propaganda. Apparently, accurately describing Nazis for what they were was beyond the pale.

The war ended in 1945, and with it, the Emergency Powers Order expired. Casablanca could finally be shown in Ireland — but not in its original form. The censors had moved on from political concerns to moral ones. It was finally OK to point out that Nazis were among the worst humanity has ever seen, but illicit romance? Not so much. All references to Rick and Ilsa's past affair were cut from the film. As Ireland's last censor, John Kelleher, later explained to The Independent: "The seduction scene is at the core of the film but the Irish audience, which was not allowed to see that scene, remained blissfully unaware they were having anything more than a nice cup of tea."

The absurdity didn't end there. When Irish television finally sought to broadcast the film in 1974 — more than three decades after its original release — censors still insisted on cuts. This time, as IrishCentral noted, the offending material was any dialogue in which Ilsa expressed her love for Rick. One of the film's most famous line, "We'll always have Paris," survived, but the context that made it meaningful did not. Irish viewers, watching a choppy version of the story, had no idea what Rick and Ilsa were supposed to always have.

The Nazi-accepting, romance-skeptical Irish film regime has since softened dramatically. In 2008, the Censorship Office was renamed the Classification Office, and today its role is merely to provide age ratings and consumer guidance. Just four films (all of a very adult nature) and one video game (for being too violent) were banned in all of 2007. Casablanca can now be watched in full by anyone in Ireland with a streaming subscription. But for a while, it wasn’t OK to show an iconic movie that suggested that the Nazis were bad guys.

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Today’s Bonus fact: From 1845 to 1852, Ireland (that is, the island, not just the region which is now the Republic of Ireland) was impacted by what is now called the Irish Potato Famine. Over a million people on the island died and at least two million others left for greener pastures. In total, the population fell from about 8.5 million to about 4.4 million — and it still hasn’t recovered. As of 2023, the population of Ireland is estimated to be only about 7.1 million.

From the Archives: Prawo Jazdy: Ireland's Worst Driver: If you’re from Poland, you probably already get what happened.

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And thanks! — Dan