Louis MacNeice wrote about Belfast in his 1938 verse poem, ‘Autumn Journal’. Of the adjectives and descriptors he shared, he spoke of a Belfast with "Free speech nipped in the bud". This has long been a defining, unfortunate aspect of Belfast and Northern Irish life. http://brianjohnspencer.tumblr.com/post/108394446978/free-speech-nipped-in-the-bud Jack Kyle wrote about the absence of free speech in Northern Ireland in his 1966 letter to the Irish Times, principally a note condemning the work and words of Ian Paisley. He wrote: "As I write this letter, I am wondering if I was living in Ireland now, would I have the courage to post it? After the recent events in Ulster, I am doubtful. Some time ago a protestant friend was striving to increase the harmony between Catholic and Protestant - word of this reached the ears of the staunch upholders of Ulster Protestantism - his home was subjected to day and night telephone calls for a month, many of them revolting. The culmination was a threat to the life of his wife, which forced him to ask for police protection. Such is the state of democracy in Ulster - freedom of thought, word and deed; so long as you think, speak and act according to the rules of the man who formed his own ‘Free Church’. Distance from Ireland in this instance does being its compensations and so I post this letter." See here: http://brianjohnspencer.tumblr.com/post/108387020928/jack-kyle-on-ian-paisley-july-1966