In the years between 1714 and 1724, Jonathan Swift published little. This hiatus in his work is often dismissed as a consequence of personal disillusionment and political disappointment, and studies of Swift commonly move from 1714 to 1724 with barely a mention of his activities in that decade. Consequently, Swift’s apparently sudden conversion to a seeming love of, and concern for, Irish rights as espoused in The Draper’s Letters is either left unexplained, or is treated as a further symptom of his bitterness and contempt for English political life. An Accidental Patriot situates Swift in the context of his political endeavours in the Church of Ireland, especially as demonstrated by the battles between Archbishop William King and the English-appointed authorities. It examines the contemporary economic climate, especially the increasing strains betwen Great Britain’s trade goals and the continuing mercantilist structure of Irish economic life, and argues that Swift’s writings help expose a fault line in Anglican Irish politics of the early Hanoverian period that was much wider than modern scholarship has traditionally recognized. This examination demonstrates a consistency of purpose on Swift’s part, and uses his continuous dedication to the preservation and promotion of the privileges of the Church of Ireland to examine that fissure within contemporary Irish society. The unpublished, overlooked and otherwise neglected writings of Swift, studied in the light of contemporary political and economic events in England and Ireland, reveal a politically astute observer and wise, if wary, commentator on events. His commentary was a logical and entirely consistent move on his part, motivated by no great love for Ireland but by a profound commitment to the ideals of the established Anglican Church. This body of commentary is as revealing of Swift’s society as it is of the man himself.
