In his satirical solution to Ireland’s prolific poor, especially among Catholics whose fish diet was thought to enhance fertility, Jonathan Swift suggested a new menu item: Succulent 1-year-olds for dinner. His essay “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country ...” was intended to shake up the English and remind them that the Irish were, in fact, human beings. This took quite a while to sink in.