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**** 4 Extra marks the 300th anniversary - 28 October 1726 - of the publication of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift***

'A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public', written by Jonathan Swift.

In 1729, Jonathan Swift's supposed 'solution' to the Irish problem of it having too "prodigious number of children", still stands as one of the most powerful, macabre and devastating pieces of satirical writing in the English language:

"I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country..."

Satirist, poet and clergyman, Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667. He published his satire Gulliver's Travels in 1726, and died in Dublin, in 1745 aged 77.

The proposer is played by Patrick Magee.

Producer: Robert Cooper

First broadcast on Â鶹Éç Radio 3 in May 1980.