Jonathan Swift was an Irish writer and clergyman in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was politically engaged and wrote A Modest Proposal in 1729 to satirize the political situation in Ireland under British rule. At the time, Catholic Irish people faced extreme poverty and oppression under the Penal Laws enacted by Britain. In just three sentences, the document provides biographical context on Swift and outlines the political situation in Ireland involving the subjugation of the Catholic Irish majority that informed Swift's writing of A Modest Proposal.

1. A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift

7. The Augustans Swift was part of a group of writers called ‘The Augustans’ who were particularly active in the early eighteenth century. Named for their admiration of the satirical, witty, mannered poetry of the original Augustan era, they were politically engaged public figures. They saw it as a writer’s place to comment on society, rather than to ‘express himself’. Names associated with this movement are Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson.

8. The Augustans In terms of attitudes, ideologies and values, the Augustans are best defined by their faith in the powers of REASON . Just as the eighteenth century is the age of scientific empiricism, so the Augustans sought to apply a rational, reasonable approach. As such, they wrote about society and how it could be improved; they were not afraid to satirise important and influential people; and they saw their writing as an inherent part of a public discourse and a necessarily moral voice. How does A Modest Proposal fit in with these general points?

10. Political Contexts There are a number of political contexts which inform A Modest Proposal – Swift was very politically engaged and active throughout most of his life. Probably the most important political context for this particular text, however, deals with the relationship between Ireland and England – the so-called ‘Irish Question’.

15. Penal Laws Several rafts of penal laws (laws explicitly designed to reduce Catholicism’s standing as the dominant religion in Ireland) were introduced by the English over the years. When Swift published A Modest Proposal (1729), the most recent were the laws from 1695. Remember, Swift points out that ‘the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom’. The penal laws, and oppression of Catholics in general, affected the majority of the population.

17. A Modest Proposal SO… a long, long history of subjugation, even by the time A Modest Proposal appeared. . At the time of writing, therefore, the Catholic majority population were living in extreme poverty. Note who the extremely poor people Swift is talking about actually are: ‘ I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included…’ These aren’t ‘beggars’ in the normal sense. Practically ALL of the Catholic population were living in utter poverty.

19. Translations – Brian Friel The American and European Revolutions of the later eighteenth century (American revolution – 1775: French Revolution – 1789) helped spread a desire for self-determination and democracy throughout Europe. Ireland was no exception, and several (unsuccessful, at least in the short term) uprisings against English rule took place (most notably in 1798). Thus, by the 1830s, when Brian Friel’s Translations is set, there was much more antagonism in the Anglo-Irish relationship. Catholics had recently been granted some limited rights, and (as often happens), they wanted more.

20. Seamus Heaney Eventually, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Ireland was granted freedom in 1921. Northern Ireland (the six counties in the North-East), which had a Protestant majority, opted to remain as part of the United Kingdom. This led to many decades of ‘Troubles’ (a low-level civil war) in Northern Ireland as Catholics and Protestants (Republicans and Unionists) sought to determine the future of the territory. This is, by and large, the period during which Seamus Heaney produced the bulk of his work (he IS still writing, though, so that may change!) The Good Friday Agreement of 1998, between Britain and Ireland, may finally bring peace to the country.