Tough Times in Ireland

592 Words2 Pages

During the time period this piece was written in, Ireland was facing some tough times. Poverty was taking over while the government did nothing. The Irish Parliament ignored numerous proposals which Swift made in earnest. Swift, in writing, “A Modest Proposal”, tries to shock the people of Ireland out of its lethargic state by degrading them. As if there could be any support to his absurd proposal, Swift wrote the pamphlet “A Modest Proposal” to try to make a changing impact on Ireland’s economic and social conditions in the late 1720s. Swift was enraged at the passivity of the Irish people, who had become so habituated to the situation that they seemed incapable of making any effort to change it. The Irish Parliament ignored proposals such as taxation of absentee landlords, and improvement of manufactured goods, made by Swift, which he believed would begin to rectify the unfortunate state that Ireland was in. At the time this pamphlet was written, and for many years afterward, Ireland, highly dependent on England, was a country that was severely poor. Most people born there were Rom...

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