Louis Marcus: Oscar nominee recalls artistic life in Cork in the 1950s

In his new memoir, Louis Marcus delves into his time in UCC, and the efforts of a group of Cork people who met at the New Look pub to discuss ways of breaking free of the conservatism of the era 

Louis Marcus at his home in Dublin. Picture: Moya Nolan

“The hope which had fuelled the struggle for independence, not only political but cultural too, had been dashed by a fearful conservatism.” 

Amid economic stagnation and mass emigration, the Catholic Church’s moral stranglehold on 1950s Irish society pervaded everything from education and women’s rights to film and literary censorship.