^(Please note I've moved my account to /u/Bealoideas, so if you have any further questions on this topic, I would be happy to answer messages sent there.)

It is perhaps worth noting here that by 1729, Jonathan Swift was both Dean of Saint Patrick's Cathedral and one of the most famous writers in the English language, to say nothing of his renown in Ireland itself. He was a prolific satirist, a style exemplified by his essay A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, as it is fully titled. For those unfamiliar with the work, the crux of Swift's satire lies in the following excerpt, as taken from University College Cork:

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above £3, or £3, 2s. 6d. at most, on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

A stinging counter to the Establishment perceptions of the native Irish, Swift parodied the endemic 'popular' solutions to the 'problem' of Ireland, by suggesting that they simply eat the poor, or rather their infant children. It may have been seen as a rebuke to anti-Irish sentiment, exemplified by Edmund Spenser and his truly vile A Veue of the Present State of Irelande, an unreadable work I will not paraphrase such is my distaste for it.

But that is not the question you asked, is it?

Public can be read in several ways, though I take it to mean here that you are asking what the common volk, which in Ireland would be the Catholic underclass, thought in regards to A Modest Proposal. Though this is a common sort of question, I would caution that you may not be satisfied in this regard, as the 'official' record of History is not always particularly concerned with the common people generally, for a variety of reasons. Also this was neither the class of people to whom the essay was directed, nor one that was largely able to read it. Nevertheless, there are very enterprising scholars here so if such documents do exist, I've no doubt they will produce them!

But... as I am a folklorist I will, as is my habit, detour into the oral tradition and what it has to say of Swift. As I've said many times the oral tradition is enormously conservative and is a useful tool for illuminating cultural perceptions... Yet temper your expectations, as the tradition is shaped by the priorities of the people who produce it rather than ours. Jonathan Swift is indeed a prominent figure in folk tradition: Despite being a first generation Anglo-Irish member of the Protestant upper class and an Anglican Cleric, he was very popular with the native Irish in no small part due to his satirical work targeting the English establishment. However much like the [Dónall Ó Conaill of folk memory] (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3wowmc/what_is_folk_memory_do_historians_take_this/cxxwce7) the folk tradition surrounding Swift is less concerned with history or the politics of the period, rather it largely consists of humorous anecdotes of Swift and his apocryphal servant, who is often called 'Jack'. These stories tend to show while Swift was clever, his 'common' servant could be cleverer still; and indeed this was a trait that has peerless value in Irish folklore, and is reflected in figures ranging from the aforementioned Dónall Ó Conaill to the legendary Fionn mac Cumhaill.

For instance, one story relates how Jack came to be employed by Swift:

Three applicants answered his advertisement for a servant, and the learned clergyman decided to test their memories. He therefore told them to repeat after him the words 'Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us', and to return to him a year later and repeat the sentence. The year passed, and at the appointed time the first two applicants came to the dean and repeated the sentence. The third fellow, however, had altered the words to 'sheep of God' and, when the dean queried this, stated that what was a lamb a year ago would be fully grown by now. The dean was amazed at his wit, and gave the position to him. This was the redoubtable Jack.

Once employed, Jack is in every way a match and better for the cleverness of his Master:

In order to teach him a lesson, Swift locks him into the kitchen with no meat and orders him to cook meat for a meal. Jack takes the leather from the Dean's walking boots, cooks this and serves it up as tripe. Swift is very pleased with the meal, but when he looks for his boots later, he realizes what has happened. He flies into a rage, and tells Jack that as punishment he will be allowed nothing to eat until he sees 'water running against a hill'. Then the dean goes riding, with Jack running alongside the horse. When they stop to let the horse drink, Jack remarks that this is water running uphill.

The most popular story concerns Jack preparing goose for Swift:

Jack is hungry and eats a leg of the goose before he serves it at table. When Swift queries this, Jack says that geese have only one leg. Later when they go riding, they see a flock of wild geese with one leg under their wings, and Jack points this out as proof of his earlier assertion. Swift claps his hands and says 'Whoosh!' with the result that the geese put down both legs and fly away. Jack, however, counters this by asking why he had not said 'whoosh' to the cooked goose.

All of these are examples of tale motifs that have been adapted to Swift, and there are dozens of such stories of Swift and his servant. This is not wholly a concoction of the oral tradition however, as Swift was well known for his 'tomfoolery' and penned a tract called Directions to Servants, of which a brief excerpt gives a further insight into his view of authority and power structure as much as his wit and personality:

When your Master or Lady call a Servant by Name, if that Servant be not in the Way, none of you are to answer, for then there will be no End of your Drudgery: And Masters themselves allow, that if a Servant comes when he is called, it is sufficient.

When you have done a Fault, be always pert and insolent, and behave your self as if you were the injured Person; this will immediately put your Master or Lady off their Mettle.

If you see your Master wronged by any of your Fellow-servants, be sure to conceal it, for fear of being called a Tell-tale: However, there is one Exception, in case of a favourite Servant, who is justly hated by the whole Family; you are therefore bound in Prudence to lay all the Faults you can upon the Favourite.

The tradition ran more contrary to Swift's own life in several other cases, for instance anecdotes of Swift and his supposed wife, though Swift himself never married. Likewise there was a widespread Catholic perception of Swift, the Dean of Saint Patrick's mind you, as secretly inclined towards the Roman faith. This is demonstrative again of the oral tradition serving the needs and beliefs of its participants rather than its subjects. We might infer a popular perception of Swift as favored friend to the Irish Catholic, which may have informed whatever perception of his work there may have been in that contemporary period, but that would be speculation.

I apologize I'm not able to address your question directly, but I hope this can provide some context to it generally.

Much of this material is drawn from the collected works of the great Dáthí Ó hÓgáin, and all of this can be considered the product of his research. I've transcribed his anecdotes directly from The Lore of Ireland.

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^(Dáthí Ó hÓgáin. The Hero in Irish Folk History. Dublin, Ireland: Gill and MacMillan, 1985.)

^(Dáthí Ó hÓgáin. The Lore of Ireland. Rochester, New York: The Boydell Press, 2006.)

This was a "private" reaction in a letter to Swift from Lord Bathhurst, indicating that some people in power certainly got the joke. Source

Well, I might end here if I would; but I cannot part with you so soon; and I must let you know, that as to your money affairs, though I have paid off John Gay, I still keep your two hundred pounds, for which I have given him a note. I have paid him interest to this time for it, which he must account to you for.

Now you must imagine, that a man who has nine children to feed, cannot long afford alienos pascere nummos; but I have four or five, that are very fit for the table. I only wait for the lord-mayor’s day to dispose of the largest; and I shall be sure of getting off the youngest, whenever a certain great man [Sir Robert Walpole, according to the note] makes another entertainment at Chelsea. Now you see, though I am your debtor, I am not without my proper ways and means to raise a supply answerable to your demand.

I must own to you, that I should not have thought of this method of raising money, but that you seemed to point it out to me. For, just at the time that scheme came out, which pretended to be calculated only for Ireland, you gave me a hint in one of the envelopes [Anglice covers] that you wished I might provide for my numerous family; and in this last you harp upon the same string.

I did immediately propose it to Lady Bathurst, as your advice, particularly for her last boy, which was born the plumpest, finest thing, that could be seen; but she fell in a passion, and bid me send you word, that she would not follow your direction, but that she would breed him up to be a parson, and he should live upon the fat of the land; or a lawyer, and then, instead of being eat himself, he should devour others. You know women in passion never mind what they say; but, as she is a very reasonable woman, I have almost brought her over now to your opinion; and having convinced her, that as matters stood, we could not possibly maintain all the nine, she does begin to think it reasonable the youngest should raise fortunes for the eldest: and upon that foot a man may perforin family duty with more courage and zeal; for, if he should happen to get twins, the selling of one might provide for the other. Or if, by any accident, while his wife lies in with one child, he should get a second upon the body of another woman, he might dispose of the fattest of the two, and that would help to breed up the other.

The more I think upon this scheme, the more reasonable it appears to me; and it ought by no means to be confined to Ireland; for, in all probability, we shall, in a very little time, be altogether as poor here as you are there. I believe, indeed, we shall carry it farther, and not confine our luxury only to the eating of children; for I happened to peep the other day into a large assembly [Parliament] not far from Westminster-hall, and I found them roasting a great fat fellow, [Walpole again] For my own part, I had not the least inclination to a slice of him; but, if I guessed right, four or five of the company had a devilish mind to be at him. Well, adieu, you begin now to wish I had ended, when I might have done it so conveniently.

If i may ask, who is swift?