There are, of course, ways of getting around censorship. Under the Censorship of Publications Act, anyone bringing a complaint forward must have three recent copies of the relevant publication.

So technically, a monthly publication would have to be around for three months before it could be banned, an annual publication for three years and so on.

When a publication is banned, the title is specified under the banning order. There is nothing to stop a publisher bringing out the same magazine, but with a different title. This is the loophole used by In Dublin, which came out, just after it was banned, as Dublin - same content, same magazine, different name.

You can also get around censorship by taking a risk. People do take the risk of importing pornography and it is possible to purchase "hardcore" in Ireland. However, you risk being raided by the gardai and facing the consequences.

What might be classified as hardcore pornography in film or video would not be passed by the Irish film censor. However, pornographic films are not often censored in Ireland, simply because it costs £800 to have a film certified. Therefore, if you were a distributor, you would tend not to waste your money with a film you had good reason to believe would be banned.