ABSTRACT
On St Andrew’s Day, 1737, the traditional Dublin celebrations of Swift’s birthday were, in Faulkner’s report, more vigorous than they had been ‘these several years past’. The occasion was observed
by all the people in and about the liberty of St Patrick’s, and in many parts of this city and suburbs. The bells rang as usual on the most solemn occasions, nineteen patataroes fired several rounds, four large bonfires were upon the steeple [of the cathedral], and the windows illuminated: Such extraordinary rejoicings have not been practised on that occasion these several years past, by which it appears, that the people are now more sensible than ever of the many obligations they lie under to so great a lover of his country.
