street art

I USED AN OLD CANON 5DIII CAMERA

In July 2011 Trim Tidy Town’s all-out effort to win big in the National Tidy Towns Competition included a number of striking murals springing up around the town. One of the most colourful was a depiction of Gulliver at the old mart, which has become quite a tourist attraction. Until a few days ago I was unaware of the 30ft long mural. The painting of Gulliver and other murals at Spicer’s wall on Watergate Street and underneath the bridge at the Maudlins roundabout are the work of professional artist Meaghan Quinn.

The mart was the venue for the weekly livestock sales for 53 years until 2004 is destined to be used for a housing development. TE Potterton has been trading as an auctioneers since 1886, operating weekly livestock sales at Castle Street in Trim from 1957 until it relocated to an open site less than a mile away on Summerhill Road in 1962. The Trim Mart was for many years one of the largest on the north east.

Following its opening in May 2023 by Minister Heather Humphreys, Solstice Arts Centre undertook the management duties of the new Swift Cultural Centre in Trim on behalf of Meath County Council. The name reflects both the importance of the acclaimed author of “Gulliver Travels” and Trim resident, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), as well as the significance of the swift to Trim’s wildlife and urban ecosystem. The Swift Cultural Centre will collaborate and share meeting rooms and cultural spaces with Trim Library to provide a diverse and enriching community learning, engagement and performance programme for the public. Community use by local artists, societies and community groups remain the primary and core value of the space.
The €9m development of the theatre and library included the refurbishment of the former St. Patrick’s Chapel for use as part of the centre. With a seating capacity of up to 235 people, Swift Cultural Centre provides a much-welcomed space for local drama, music and theatre groups.

Gulliver’s Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the “travellers’ tales” literary subgenre. It is Swift’s best-known full-length work and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver’s Travels “to vex the world rather than divert it”.

The book was an immediate success. The English dramatist John Gay remarked, “It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery.” In 2015, Robert McCrum released his selection list of the 100 best novels of all time, where he called Gulliver’s Travels “a satirical masterpiece”.