About

Join dark historian Andrew Johnston of Alternative Ulstours for an illustrated Terror Talk uncovering the clandestine legacy of horror censorship.

For centuries, governments, religious bodies and cultural committees have banned, burned or butchered transgressive works. From medieval witchcraft manuals to internet algorithms, taboo expression and institutional control have evolved together, constantly testing society's limits.

Andrew will chart how Renaissance masters like Hieronymus Bosch painted Hell under strict theological guidelines, why the Gothic backlash branded Frankenstein and Dracula corrupting threats to virtue and how Victorian zealots aggressively targeted the blood-soaked pages of penny dreadfuls.

In the 20th century, the war on the forbidden intensified through the Nazis' 'Degenerate Art' exhibition and 1950s horror comic crackdowns, advancing into cinema via the Hollywood Hays Code, Britain's notorious X certificate and the 1980s 'video nasties' hysteria.

So, come along to the iconic Sunflower Public House, buy a drink, pull up a seat and discover what they didn't want you to see!