"In 1957, the Pike Theatre, as part of the first ever Dublin Theatre Festival, staged Tennessee Williams' celebrated play, The Rose Tattoo. Touted in State-sponsored brochures as a festival highlight, the critically acclaimed production saw the tiny theatre crammed as official VIPs clamoured for front-row seats."

"So why, halfway through the run, was Pike Theatre co-owner Alan Simpson arrested by the Irish State on the grounds of indecency? Why was the tiny theatre - famous for discovering Behan and for bringing Beckett's Waiting for Godot to Ireland - forced to close? And why, as the scandal trekked through the Irish court system, and strained to beyond breaking point the marriage of Simpson and co-owner Carolyn Swift, was the State's evidence eventually laughed out of court?"

"Few episodes from twentieth-century Irish history have proved quite as mysterious - or enduring - as the Rose Tattoo affair. Almost half a century on, Carolyn Swift set out with her colleague Gerard Whelan to uncover the real reasons behind this bizarre saga. Their research, both in the National Archives and the papers of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, revealed a sensational story hidden under decades-old layers of silence, misinformation and State subterfuge."--Jacket.