ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Jonathan Swift’s origins and journey to political activism through pamphleteering, and suggests that he is a key figure in the proto-history of Irish and British public relations. It examines the Drapier’s Letters as a nation building text in Irish public relations history, beginning by outlining the background to Swift’s activism and critiquing his understanding and use of the words kingdom, nation, Ireland and country through a critical discourse analysis following N. Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework of textual exploration. Swift’s Drapier was a loyal Everyman and the Letters are public affairs polemics with multiple standpoints and arguments targeting distinct publics. With Swift and his Ascendancy public sharing commonalities such as language, religion and a bifurcated Anglo-Irish identity, an identifiable category of socially significant people emerged. Swift’s prime legacy as communicator may be as a rhetorician. In contemporary public relations rhetoric has emerged as a contested though important field of inquiry.
