Today's political spin doctors are never far from controversy, but compared to one of the earliest practitioners of the art, Jonathan Swift, they're a considerate lot.
Swift, acting as publicist and propagandist for Queen Anne's chief ministers in early 18th-century England, once said of an opponent: "He is without the sense of shame or glory, as some men are without the sense of smelling; and, therefore, a good name to him is no more than a precious ointment would be to these."
Born in Dublin, Swift's associations with the capital, from Hoey's Court to St Patrick's Cathedral, are now inextricably linked to its history. Well known, too, are his Meath connections, at Laracor. Less familiar perhaps are his links with the south-east, which are documented in the new biography of him by Victoria Glendinning.
Swift spent some of his formative years in Kilkenny, where he attended Kilkenny Grammar School in John Street up to the age of 14, later claiming that he had been given "the education of a dog" when his uncles sent him as a boarder there at the age of six.
In fact the school was considered the best in Ireland. Ms Glendinning, who says Swift was always precise with his use of animal imagery, explains: "When he made that comment he probably meant he was given enough to eat and drink and somewhere to sleep, as a dog would be."
While Swift didn't write a great deal about his schooldays, Ms Glendinning says he must have gone fishing in the Nore because he told a story about how he caught a great fish during that time, but it escaped. "I think that was a metaphor for the disappointments he was later to suffer. Never in his whole life did he catch the great fish."
The school then stood on the site of what is now the County Hall, the administrative headquarters of Kilkenny County Council. It attracts "a great deal of people from many parts of the world" in search of the writer's roots, according to the tourism officer for Kilkenny and Carlow, Pat Nolan. "Gulliver's Travels is known by virtually everyone in the world and the man who wrote it was educated in Kilkenny," he adds proudly.
Other Swift devotees head for Swiftsheath, described by Mr Nolan as "a fine baronial country home" about five miles north of Kilkenny city in the parish of Conaghy, and near Jenkinstown Park.
Now run as a guesthouse by Mrs Brigitte Lennon, Swiftsheath was reputed to have been visited regularly by Swift during his Kilkenny schooldays. Ms Glendinning says this may not have been the case, however, even though the house was owned by the extended Swift family.
Ms Glendinning's research for the book took her to Kilkenny and she professes to be "very keen" on the place. She was most disappointed to hear of the county's All-Ireland hurling final defeat: "Tell them I'm very, very sorry."
Jonathan Swift by Victoria Glendinning has just been published by Hutchinson. Price £20