Swift's career as an author and satirist reflects both his
religious and his political preoccupations, which have their
roots in his personal history and in the history of his times.
He had been born in Ireland, but his grandfather had been a
notable loyalist in the English Civil War: his father and three
uncles had settled in Ireland after the Restoration. Swift's
mother, too, was the daughter of an English clergyman. A great
deal of Swift's life was spent in bitter disappointment either
in England or in what was for him a sort of exile in Ireland,
for it was in England that he desired, and attempted, to rise to
power. He was himself, however, a priest in the Church of
Ireland, and since English deaneries and bishoprics were not
given to individuals of Irish birth his desires were continually
thwarted — and, as he saw it, his services to his country
continually unappreciated.  Those services included his
persistent and unswerving attacks on those irrational forces in
politics and religion which threatened th