The Irish Film Censor’s Office has gone beyond its traditional remit (placing largely ignored classification labels on movies) by “banning” the video game, Manhunt 2, released by Rockstar Games. I’ve used inverted commas around the censor’s move because, if you’re so inclined, you can buy the offending game off the web in about 15 seconds.

Aside from its futility, there are two things, I think, about the ban worth pondering. First, is the reasoning offered by the censor, John Kelleher, who claimed that “graphic violence may be a justifiable element within the overall context of [a video game]. However, in the case of Manhunt 2, IFCO believes that there is no such context, and the level of gross, unrelenting and gratuitous violence is unacceptable.”

But isn’t “gross, unrelenting, and gratuitous violence” a description that could be applied to the gameplay offered by any number of shoot-’em-ups? It is certainly my (brief) experience of the acclaimed Gears of War, in which my hapless proxy was repeatedly and bloodily slaughtered.

The second point: was the Irish censor’s decision to single out Manhunt 2 perhaps influenced by the earlier prohibition of the same game by his counterpart in Britain, the British Board of Film Classification (note the slightly less draconian “Classification” in the British outfit’s title)?

Certainly, it would go against the grain of Irish censor’s modus operandi to be less strict than Britain’s scissor-wielder. Anyone who visits a video store in Ireland will be familiar with the twin colour-coded classification badges that adorn DVDs. Typically, a film’s British 15 cert is trumped by an Irish 18 cert. The only exception to this rule that I can recall is the Mel Gibson gore-fest, Apocalypto , which was given an 18 cert by the BBFC but given a teen-friendly 15 stamp in Ireland. (Perhaps Mr Kelleher thought Gibson’s history lesson made up for all the onscreen evisceration.)

Of course, such punctiliousness is slightly lacking when it comes down to applying the classifications. It seems at my local vid vendor the rule for allowing people to rent movies is closer to that used in a fun-fair: if you’re able to put the cash on the counter-top, you’re old enough to watch the film.