What social problems are addressed?

Swift addresses the way the British have been treating the Irish people, especially those who practice a faith that is not the same faith of Great Britain. Over and over again, he satirizes the Irish Catholics who are looked down upon by the British. He satirizes some of the most basic doctrines of the Catholic Church and suggests that the overpopulation that is a result of Catholic "breeding," needs a practical solution; thus, he suggests that we eat the children in what sounds like a logical argument which is, in fact, a bitter satire against the treatment of the Irish Catholics.