Wikimedia Commons The original pamphlet for A Modest Proposal. “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.” He begins A Modest Proposal by describing the sorry state of the majority of Ireland’s population in detailed terms, leading the reader to believe he has a compassionate solution in mind, thus making it even more shocking when he states his proposal: In his most famous piece of satire, “A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick,” Swift called attention to the plight of the Irish by proposing an outlandish plan to help Ireland’s poor. Frustrated at the lack of progress, he turned to writing. He made several appeals to Irish Parliament to put into place policies that would help the populace, but nothing ever came of them. Although he was part of the ruling class, by the early 1700s Swift had become very involved in Irish politics, and was particularly interested in pointing out how disastrously the unfair politics of the English were impacting the Irish people.

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish writer, born in Dublin in 1667 to Anglican parents. Overpopulation and overcrowding contributed to the dismal conditions, and there seemed to be little hope that things would improve. The sight of beggars in the streets, was a common sight. Trade restrictions had greatly hurt the economy and the lack of work led to rampant poverty and hunger. The country had been under England’s rule for almost 500 years, and economic and social conditions were deteriorating as a direct result of their rule.

Wikimedia Commons Johnathon Swift, author of A Modest Proposal.

J swift a modest proposal