Once in Ireland, however, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works: Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729), earning him the status of an Irish patriot.Stephen DNB, pp. 217–218. This new role was unwelcome to the Government, which made clumsy attempts to silence him. His printer, Edward Waters, was convicted of seditious libel in 1720, but four years later a grand jury refused to find that the Drapier's Letters (which, though written under a pseudonym, were universally known to be Swift's work) were seditious.Sir Walter Scott. Life of Jonathan Swift, vol. 1, Edinburgh 1814, pp. 281–282. Swift responded with an attack on the Irish judiciary almost unparalleled in its ferocity, his principal target being the "vile and profligate villain" William Whitshed, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.Ball, F. Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921, London John Murray, vol. 2 pp. 103–105.
Once in Ireland, however, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works: Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729), earning him the status of an Irish patriot.Stephen DNB, pp. 217–218. This new role was unwelcome to the Government, which made clumsy attempts to silence him. His printer Edward Waters, was convicted of seditious libel in 1720, but four years later a grand jury refused to find that the Drapier's Letters (which, though written under a pseudonym, were universally known to be Swift's work) were seditiousSir Walter Scott. Life of Jo.nathan Swift, vol. 1, Edinburgh 1814, pp. 281–282. Swift responded with an attack on the Irish judiciary almost unparalleled in its ferocity, his principal target being the "vile and profligate villain" William Whitshed, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.Ball, F. Elrington (1926) The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921, London John Murray, vol. 2 pp. 103–105.