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Jonathan Swift Address by Dr Don Thornhill, St Patrick's Cathedral

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Jonathan Swift Address by Dr Don Thornhill, St Patrick's Cathedral Jonathan Swift Address by Dr Don Thornhill, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, 17 October, 2010 I would like to thank my friend and neighbour from Co Waterford, the Very Reverend Dr Robert McCarthy for giving me the honour and pleasure of speaking here this afternoon. But some caveats and acknowledgements are in order. As regards the caveats I hope that in inviting me here, as the Dean himself wrote, to speak, and I quote, “on any aspect of Swift”, the Dean was not, like his predecessor, being ironic. I am not a historian or a literary scholar. My interests are some distance away in economic policy, taxation and competitiveness, public sector reform and education policy. In the arenas where these topics are discussed I and other have preached from time to time – but never before from a pulpit! But I was helped by the patience, support and critical contributions (critical in both senses of the word!) of my family, particularly Maura, and of my friends during the past few months. I would like to thank Dr Ronan Kelly, author of Bard of Erin, a much acclaimed biography of Thomas Moore, who gave me essential advice and guidance. In our current economic circumstances it would, of course be tempting in response to the Dean’s invitation by quoting liberally from Swift’s commentaries on human foolishness and injustices. His saeva indignatio/ savage indignation, some of which he directed at bankers, undoubtedly has a contemporary resonance 1. A “What would Swift say if he were alive today ” exercise could be entertaining and maybe cause some bitter amusement but others are better equipped to do it. 1 Language and style; Ian Higgins. from The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift, Christopher Fox Ed, Cambridge University Press 2003,page 157 2 What I would like to do instead is to reflect on one of the issues which had an important influence on Swift’s political writings – his ideas on the relationship between Ireland and England – including touching briefly on how the ideas relating to this important relationship evolved over time. Ideas being the operative word. Ideas are the tools we use to order our behaviour, our societies and to address challenges. John Maynard Keynes wrote that the world is ruled by little else other than ideas – both when they are right and they are wrong. He also wrote that one of the great difficulties is not in developing new ideas but in escaping old ones 2. Ideas must evolve if they are to retain their power and usefulness. We are living at a time, both in Ireland and in the West, where we are seeing an urgent search for new or evolved informing ideas for economic and social policy. Against the broad sweep of history our time has been one where we have seen rapid and major developments in the prevailing ideas and ideologies. We have seen the fall of Communism, the impact this had on the policies of the democratic socialist parties in the West and the resurgence of liberal capitalism and the emphasis on individualism – to the point where one historian could confidently write about, and I quote” The end of History” 3. However, this triumph was relatively short lived. Governments in Europe and in the US had to step in to save their banking systems, and in the process ended up as owners of surprising parts of national economies. Further thinking is needed. However onto Swift! Like us all Swift’s ideas were formed by his experiences, they evolved over time - and set backs and successes played a part. After education at Kilkenny College and Trinity, Swift moved to England where he spent a period at Moor Park in Surrey as secretary to Sir 2 “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”, John Maynard Keynes, Macmillan Cambridge University Press, for Royal Economic Society (1936). 3 “The End of History and the Last Man”; Francis Fukuyama, Free Press, (1992), ISBN 0029109752 3 William Temple, a distinguished retired English diplomat. This experience helped to shape his view of himself as a public servant. The Church also called. He returned to Dublin after 6 years and was ordained as a priest in 1695. An unhappy assignment in the parish of Kilroot in Co Antrim followed. Kilroot at the time has been described as (quote) ‘an isolated and neglected outpost of Anglicanism surrounded by a thriving settler community of Scottish Presbyterians’4; and scholars have argued, and (quote), ‘Swift’s lifelong fear and hatred of non-conformists was born directly out of his experience in the North of Ireland.’5 He was throughout his life a firm believer not only in the need for a preeminent position for his church, the Church of Ireland, but favoured penal legislation against Dissenters and against the Roman Catholic majority. His defence and loyalty to the Church of Ireland was according to one scholar (quote), ‘a touchstone for his outlook on most issues’. 6 Kilroot was in the short run a wrong turning for Swift but it appears to have left an abiding impact on his thinking. He did not stay very long ,returning with relief to Temple and Moor Park. After Temple’s death three years later, Swift remained in England as literary executor and editor of his patron’s memoirs and correspondence and also used this time to make his own name better known. He returned to Ireland in 1700 and was appointed as Vicar of Laracor near Trim and a prebendary of St Patrick’s Cathedral. Building on his connections in London, Swift seems to have gained the confidence of Archbishop King of Dublin – who entrusted him with the task of negotiating the remission, or payment to the Church, of a tax called the First Fruits. This was an ancient and arcane tax. Its importance for the Church of Ireland was that it was levied on clerical livings and the revenues were remitted to the Crown. The Church of England had succeeded in securing that the English revenues be paid to the Church to support poor livings in England. The Irish Church set out to seek a similar arrangement. 4 “Swift’s life; Joseph McKinn, from The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift, Christopher Fox Ed, Cambridge University Press 2003,page 18 5 ibid 6 Ibid 4 Swift was sent to London as negotiator. The Whig government offered remission but Swift refused, supported by his superiors, to accept the quid pro quo insisted on by the government that the Church of Ireland support a greater degree of legal toleration in Ireland for non- conformists. This was a critical stage in Swift’s transition from being a Whig to a Tory. It also seems to have prompted the first of his so- called “patriotic” writings, The Story of The Injured Lady , in which he attacked England’s colonial behaviour towards Ireland. Swift felt that the then recent constitutional union between Presbyterian Scotland and Anglican England represented a betrayal of loyal Protestant, Anglican Ireland – presenting his allegory in the form of a letter from the Injured Lady to her friend with an opening paragraph, of perhaps enduring sentiment, which might not be out of place in a potboiler romantic novel: “Sir Being ruined by the Inconstancy and Unkindness of a Lover, I hope that a true and plain relation of my Misfortunes may be of Use and Warning to credulous Maids, never to put too much Trust in deceitful Men .......” 7 The Whig administration was replaced by a Tory one in 1709. Swift returned to England and got a much better reception. The Tories offered to remit the First Fruits in return for Swift taking on the role as chief propagandist for their party. Swift remained in England and soon progressed to being part of the inner circle of the Tory administration as well as becoming a leading figure in English literary circles. He seemed fairly set to prosper in England. However, this was not to be. The Tory administration began to fracture. Swift hoped that before it fell he would gain a suitable clerical promotion in the form of what his correspondent Lord Peterborough described as a “Lean bishopric or a fat deanery” 8in England. But Queen Anne had been upset by some of his writings and decided that he was 7 The Story of the Injured Lady, Jonathan Swift, Swift’s Irish Pamphlets, edited by Joseph McMinn, pages 23-28, published 1991, reprinted 2009 8 Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, Ed. Harold Williams, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963-1965, Volume 1, page 219 5 not a suitable person to grace an English bishopric. Instead, Swift was offered, and accepted, the Deanship of St Patrick’s Cathedral. On the day of his appointment as Dean in 1713, these lines are said to have been posted on the Cathedral gate: Look down St Patrick , look we pray, On Thine own Church and Steeple, Convert thy Dean, on this great Day, Or else God help the People This prayer for the conversion of Swift may have been political rather than religious. The rumoured author, Jonathan Smedley, was a Whig opponent of Swift who like many of his party appeared not to have forgiven Swift’s shift from allegiance to their party. But perhaps worse was to come? Mind you, the quality of Smedley’s verse does not compare with Swift’s. Contrast Smedley with Swift’s own famous verse on his foundation bequest to St Patrick’s Hospital “He gave what little wealth he had To build a house for fools and mad And showed by one satiric touch No nation wanted it so much” The last two lines might be an appropriate commentary on some of the aspects of the conduct of banking and economic policy during the height of the property boom.
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