Madam, – In 1980 I decided we should have in St Patrick’s Cathedral an annual lecture on Jonathan Swift, so I wrote to Michael Foot, one of Swift’s most fervent admirers. Michael gladly accepted and duly arrived complete with his sturdy walking stick, anorak and an enormous bundle of Sunday papers, which he had perused on the flight to Dublin.
Speaking without a note, with true Swiftian eloquence and directness, he held forth to a packed cathedral on the challenge of Swift to churches, statesmen and politicians today; Swift’s horror of war and cruelty; conquests and crimes committed in the name of Christ or patriotism; and how Swift prophesied what would happen if the new moneyed class, the bankers, should rule the community, and the dangers unrestricted capitalism would pose, especially to the poor. Government must be with the consent of the governed, he said. All of it was so relevant, and delivered from the pulpit with clarity, conviction and eloquence.
Afterwards, Michael confided that he found it a greater ordeal to face the congregation from the pulpit of St Patrick’s than to face the House of Commons from the opposition front bench. I suggested perhaps this was because he was an atheist. He would be more comfortable as an agnostic. He said he would think about it! A fanatic bibliophile, he toured the Dublin bookshops on visits to Dublin and he always made a point of visiting St Patrick’s Cathedral and doing homage at the grave of Swift.
A regular attender at the annual Swift seminars, Michael and I once took part in a "Swiftian duet" in Celbridge Abbey, home of Vanessa, giving voice to the various facets of this enigmatic and inexhaustible genius who still grips the attention of students of politics, economics and human behaviour all over the world. For Gulliver's Travelsunloosed something which has never subsided, its relevance a challenge to every nation. – Yours, etc,