Today is 28/10/2026 and is the 300th anniversary of the publication of Gulliver’s Travels.
Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, was an Anglican priest and Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin from 1713 until his death in 1745. The pulpit he preached from is still preserved in the Cathedral today.
Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 at Hoey’s Court close to the Cathedral. In his early years he attended Kilkenny College and then, aged 15, Trinity College, Dublin. In 1694 Swift decided to enter the priesthood and his first parish was in Kilroot in County Antrim.
Swift’s interests included English political affairs an he wrote many pamphlets on behalf of the Tory Government. Swift ultimately chose to enter the priesthood instead of politics, but his forthright political views negatively affected his chances of career progression.
Jonathan Swift hoped to be rewarded for his work championing the Tory government with a prestigious appointment in one of England’s great cathedrals. However, when the Tories fell out of favour, Queen Anne appointed him Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin instead. Swift was bitterly disappointed by this, as he saw it as virtual banishment, believing his native city to be something of a backwater.
Swift reached the pinnacle of his career as Dean of Saint Patrick’s in 1713. During his time as dean, he made the Cathedral the only Anglican church in Dublin at that time to celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday. He preached every fifth Sunday and his sermons often lasted for hours.
An urban legend suggests that the Cathedral’s pulpit originally had wheels so Swift could be pushed around through the aisles to wake up sleeping parishioners.
In Jonathan Swift’s A Sermon Upon Sleeping in Church, he wrote:
A preacher cannot look around from the pulpit without observing, that …
Of all misbehaviour, none is comparable to that of those who come here to sleep; opium is not so stultifying to many persons as an afternoon sermon
Jonathan Swift was a prolific and sometimes controversial writer. He recognised that Irish society was extremely unequal and that his best tool in achieving change was his quill.
His words were designed to provoke change, and his use of satire, sarcasm and wit attempted to shock the establishment into action. In his most famous work, Gulliver’s Travels, he satirised society, targeting a number of themes from contemporary politics and experimental science to human nature.
In his essay A Modest Proposal (1729), Swift mocked indifference to the plight of the Irish poor. He satirically suggested that by encouraging people to cook and eat a quarter of Irish children under two years of age, the government could solve the problems of starvation and poverty.
Swift died in 1745 aged 78, well above average life expectancy for the period.
