Catch the Hardy Bucks, a spectacular light show and the President at the Swift Festival this weekend

Heading to the Swift Festival in Trim this weekend? If so, you can catch the Hardy Bucks, El Presidente Michael D himself and 302 people reading Gulliver’s Travels all at the same time.

The Swift Festival starts this Thursday, July 4, in Trim Castle at 8pm with a launch and drinks reception which will be followed by the annual Battle of the Books featuring the two Trim-based writers groups, the Meath Writers Circle and the Boyne Writers Group. On Friday night, the traditional round table dinner discussion has a change of format and will now feature three comedy routines from Barry Murphy of Après Match and Irish Pictorial Weekly, Alan Shortt, Bull Island, and Colm O Regan, Irish Mammies and BBC. The cost of the event is reduced this year to €25 and guests can enjoy great comedy, conversation and fine finger food in the Knightsbrook Hotel starting with a reception at 8.30pm and show beginning at 9pm sharp. On Saturday, festival organisers are aiming to have 302 people reading aloud the 302 individual pages of Swift’s famous novel, Gulliver's Travels, all at the same time. This should mean that the entire book will be read in just over three minutes, making it the quickest public reading of any of Swift's works and for more information on how you can be involved in a piece of history, check out swiftsatirefestival.com or ring the reading co-ordinator Paddy Smith on (086) 1577526 to guarantee one of the 302 places. Throughout Saturday, the Comedy Marquee will be hopping with over 20 leading comedians performing all day.  Doors open at 1pm, it only costs €20 and the line-up features comedians such as Barry Murphy, Tara Flynn, Neil Delamere, Bernard O’Shea of Republic of Telly and Martin Maloney of the Hardy Bucks. For more details on the schedule and the content of the performances, check out the Swift Satire Festival website. On Sunday, President Michael D Higgins will deliver the inaugural Swift Lecture in Trim Castle Hotel. He has been hitting the international headlines recently and we are all hoping that a festival commemorating Swift will encourage him to be at least as outspoken again. Be there to hear him! Other events on Sunday include A Bite Of Satire lunch, a rehearsed reading of satirical play The Great Goat Bubble and the Genealogy Roadshow in Trim Castle Hotel, where you can consult the largest and most famous genealogical research agency in Ireland, Eneclann, to find out who you are and where you came from. If movie star Tom Cruise went to them, so can you! And it’s free! There’s also a walking tour of Swift’s Trim conducted by local historian Richard Haworth, an exhibition called Swift in His Time which historical depictions of the Dean and his associates as well as legal documents, handwritten accounts and other informative material. Finally, Poetry In Motion, which gives anybody and everybody the opportunity to participate in the festival, will be seen and heard on the streets of the town on Friday and Saturday. The Bradford Literature Group (from England), featuring the DNA poets who are en route to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, will be trying to hog the recitations and readings of poetry but Focus readers have our full permission to elbow them aside every now and then and insist on taking their own turn. It’s mightily therapeutic! Tickets for the Swift Festival and all information about it can be found on the website and tickets can also be bought at Trim Library. For more information, contact Sinéad at (087) 9855072 or e-mail info@swiftsatirefestival.com.