1. A Modest Proposal
Mr. Christopher Ojeda

2. Jonathan Swift

Born on November 30, 1667, Irish
author, clergyman and satirist Jonathan
Swift grew up fatherless. Under the care
of his uncle, he received a bachelor's
degree from Trinity College and then
worked as a statesman's assistant.
Eventually, he became dean of St.
Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Most of his
writings were published under
pseudonyms. He best remembered for
his 1728 book Gulliver's Travels.

3. Ireland and the Potato

The potato was the principal source of
nutrition for the vast majority of the
poorer classes because this crop
produced more food per acre than wheat
and could also be used to generate
income. The practice of Land Division
meant that peasants needed to produce
the biggest crop possible. The most
variety of potato was the ‗Aran
Banner‘ which, whilst producing high
yields also was very susceptible to blight.

4. 
Many farmers had a few animals; the
pig, easily fed on left-overs and
requiring little space, was quite
common. In many cases, however,
other crops and animals were used to
pay the rent and were never regarded
as food.

5. Tough times were usual in
Ireland

The arrival of the month of June
indicated the start of the hungry or
meal months in rural Ireland as new
potatoes were not dug until August.
People simply had nothing to eat or at
best could manage a meal of porridge.
Hunger was commonplace and small
scale famines were therefore not
unknown.

6. Dependence on the potato


The potato became the staple diet of
much of the country during the early
1800s as it was ideally suited to the Irish
climate, could be grown even in poor
soils, gave a high return per acre and a
single acre could support a family of 5–6
people.
By 1845, it is estimated that about one
third of the entire population was totally
dependent on the potato, and in poor
regions, like Mayo, it was the only food
eaten by up to nine tenths of the
population.

9. How does the potato get
infected?

Potato and tomato blight is a disease
caused by the fungus-like organism
Phytophthora infestans which
spreads rapidly in the foliage of
potatoes and tomatoes causing
collapse and decay. The disease
spreads most readily during periods of
warm and humid weather with rain.

10. What is Laissez Faire?

The policy of ‗Laissez Faire‘ (meaning
to leave alone) meant that
Governments did not interfere in
business markets or the economy in
general. This policy was disastrous
when famine struck as it meant that
there was no way of quickly rectifying
the crisis. Scarce food became costly
and the poor simply starved.

11. Over population

While the population of Europe rose
throughout the 19th century,
population growth in Ireland was
particularly dramatic. In 1800, the
population was about 5 million. By
1841, it had risen to over 8 million
according to the census of that year.
This growth can be explained by the
fact that people married early in life
and they tended to have large
families.

13. Why did Swift write this?

Jonathan Swift wrote ―A Modest Proposal‖ to
call attention to abuses inflicted on Irish
Catholics by well-to-do English Protestants.
Swift himself was a Protestant, but he was
also a native of Ireland, having been born in
Dublin of English parents. He believed
England was exploiting and oppressing
Ireland.
.......Many Irishmen worked farms owned by
Englishmen who charged high rents—so high
that the Irish were frequently unable to pay
them. Consequently, many Irish farming
families continually lived on the edge of
starvation.

14. 
In ―A Modest Proposal,‖ Swift satirizes
the English landlords with outrageous
humor, proposing that Irish infants be
sold as food at age one, when they
are plump and healthy, to give the
Irish a new source of income and the
English a new food product to bolster
their economy and eliminate a social
problem

15. 
He says his proposal, if adopted,
would also result in a reduction in the
number of Catholics in Ireland, since
most Irish infants—almost all of whom
were baptized Catholic—would end up
in stews and other dishes instead of
growing up to go to Catholic churches.
Here, he is satirizing the prejudice of
Protestants toward Catholics.

16. Differences between Catholics and
Protestants


1. The Pope. Catholics have a Pope,
which they consider a vicar for Christ —
an infallible stand-in, that heads the
Church. Protestants believe no human is
infallible and Jesus alone heads up the
Church.
2. Big , Fancy Cathedrals. Catholics
have them; Protestants don‘t. Why?
Catholicism says that ―humanity must
discover its unity and salvation‖ within a
church. Protestants say all Christians
can be saved, regardless of church
membership.

17. 3. Saints. Catholics pray
to saints (holy dead people) in addition
to God and Jesus. Protestants
acknowledge saints, but don‘t pray to
them.
 4. Holy Water. Catholics only.
 5. Celibacy and Nuns. Catholics only.


18. 6. Purgatory: Catholics only.
 7. Scripture: The be-all, end-all for
Protestants is ―the Word of God.‖ For
Catholics, tradition is just important as
scripture — maybe even more so.
 8. Catechism: Protestant kids
memorize the Bible. Catholic kids
get catechism.


19. 9. Authori-tay: In Catholicism, only the
Roman Catholic Church has authority to
interpret the Bible. Protestants hold that
each individual has authority to interpret
the Bible.
 10. Sacraments: Catholic are the only
ones to have the concept of the seven
sacraments (baptism, confirmation, the
Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick,
holy orders, and matrimony). Protestants
teach that salvation is attained through
faith alone.


20. 11. Holidays: Catholics have 10 Holy
Days of Obligation (which mean they
must go to Mass). Protestants are more
like, ―Just come to church on Christmas,
that‘s all we ask.‖
 12. Communion: In Catholicism, the
bread and wine ―become‖ the body and
blood of Jesus Christ, meaning that
Jesus is truly present on the altar. In
Protestantism, the bread and wine are
symbolic.


21. Swift‘s modest proposal

The Modest Proposal begins by
describing the very real poverty of
people in Ireland. Swift presents this
quite sympathetically but sets out facts
and details, showing that there is a
―surplus‖ of children who cannot be
fed. He considers the possibility of
selling the children into slavery, but
objects to this - not because it is cruel
or wrong, but because no-one will buy
children below twelve years of age.

22. 
This means that there is a long period
in which the children cannot be fed,
because their parents are too poor,
but are too small and weak to be sold
into work. Next he digresses to make
the shocking claim that, according to
an American whom he knows, a
healthy child at one year old is:

23. ―a most delicious, nourishing and
wholesome Food, whether Stewed,
Roasted, Baked or Boyled‖
(From this beginning, Swift proceeds to
develop his scheme by breeding
children for food.)

24. Cannibalism in Ireland

One documented report involved a John
Connolly in the West of Ireland who came before
the court on theft charges,In the course of the
prosecution, it emerged that the family were in
such desperate straits that his wife had eaten
some of the flesh off the leg of the dead body of
her son.

Another case of cannibalism was reported in The
Times on May 23rd 1849. In Mayo, a starving
man was reported to have ―extracted the heart
and liver...[of] a shipwrecked human body…cast
on shore‖.