Dr Brendan Twomey Presents: Gulliver @ 300 - still relevant after all these years?
Dr Brendan Twomey and St Patricks Hospital
Gulliver's Travels was first published in October 1726; 300 years ago. The Travels purposts to be the memoir of one Lemuel Gulliver of his travels to what he described as remote nations of the world. In reality the Travels is a profound satire on big themes such as politics, religion, war, colonialism, and the law but also a really funny take on human foibles, stupidity and perversity; there is a joke in every paragraph.
Gulliver's Travels was an instant hit; and it has remained so ever since. The Travels was written in Dublin by Dr Jonathan Swift, the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin, and it has probably been published in more versions and in more languages, and it has sold more copies than any other book written by an Irish author. For 300 years the instantly recognizable image of Gulliver, whether tied down on the beach, conversing with the rational horses, or standing astride the Lilliputian army, has been an integral part of global visual culture.
Gulliver's image can be seen in thousands of books, paintings, movies, TV, plays and musicals, and also on mugs, keyrings, fridge magnets, bookmarks, coins, stamps, cards, airplanes, street names and here in Dublin on the wonderful set of terracotta roundels in Golden Lane. This keynote talk will set the major set pieces and themes of Gulliver's Travels in the context of the life and times of its real author 'Jonathan Swift' while also highlighting its continuing relevance for our world.
Brendan’s Bio
Dr. Brendan Twomey is a retired banker. In 2018 he completed his PhD in TCD, Personal Financial Management in Early Eighteenth-Century Ireland: Practices, participants, and outcomes, under the supervision of Prof. David Dickson. His publications include two forthcoming essays A 1742 inventory of Jonathan Swift’s household goods and chattels, in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, and Debtor imprisonment in eighteenth-century Ireland in David Hayton and Ciarán Mac Murchaidh (eds) Improvement and nationhood: essays in Irish history, c. 1730-c. 1850 presented to James Kelly.
Previous publications include ‘the receiver-general is not in cash to pay …’ The financial travails of Dublin Corporation, 1690-1760, causes, actions and political impact’ in Politics and political culture in Ireland from Restoration to Union, 1660-1800(2022), ‘House refurbishment in mid-eighteenth-century Dublin’ in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, Vol. xxiv, (2021), Sir John T. Gilbert: life, works and contexts (2013) and Financing Speculative Property Development in early eighteenth-century Dublin (2010).
He has published three volumes in the Maynooth Studies in Local History; The perjury trial of Patrick Hurly of Moughna, Co. Clare; Elite Catholic responses to the emerging Protestant ascendancy (2024), Dublin in 1707: A year in the life of the city (2010) and Smithfield and the parish of St Paul: 1698-1745 (2004). His current research interests are focussed on celebrating the 300th anniversary of the publication of Gulliver’s Travels, first published in 1726, and on continuing his research into the financial and legal affairs of Jonathan Swift.
More Info
Duration: 2 hours
Age Suitability: 16+
Accessibility: Fully Accessible
Location: Lecture Hall at St Patrick's University Hospital, Steeven's Lane, James's St, Saint James, Dublin 8, D08 K7YW
