The Tailor and Ansty by Eric Cross was published as a book in 1942. It was banned in Ireland shortly after its release because of alleged indecency and obscenity. In a four-day debate in the Senate, one Senator, who claimed to have read all authors "from Rabelais down", said he had never read a "finer collection of smut". Having toured the country this remarkable story now returns to Cork, to Fota House for the first time, for a five-week long run of the production. Audiences can both enjoy this highly entertaining production, as well as the option of dining beforehand at Fota House with a pre-show buffet meal. Timothy Buckley, a tailor was a great seanchai (storyteller) and he and his wife Ansty lived together in their cottage in West Cork, welcoming all to their fireside. The Tailor never travelled further than Scotland, yet the breadth of the world could not contain the wealth of his humour and fantasy. Many of the tailor’s stories reflected his own love of nature and had a raw vitality, humour and sexuality out of step with the mores of the time. The subsequent banning of the book led to the tailor and Ansty being visited by three of the local clergy, who forced Timothy to burn his copy of the book in his own fireplace.
