Puck Fair, The Coronation of a Goat in the Kingdom
By Danny Costello
Puck
Fair “Three August days in the Kingdom
Annually devoted to the coronation of a goat!
Danny Costello profiles a unique festival that takes place every
year in the Kingdom of Kerry.
"Eleven pints of Guinness please", requests the middle
aged English guy looking for an expression of surprise on the
face of the congenial young barmaid. Totally unfazed, “Anything
else” she enquires. “No, that’s it I thanks”,
he Replies.
For both of them it’s the beginning of “Puck Fair”.
A three day event where its going to be hard work for the pretty
colleen behind the bar and heavy drinking for the foreign
English visitor and his ten mates standing opposite her. Suddenly
the band sitting in the corner strikes up with a piece of traditional
Irish Music and so the scene is set. It’s Friday evening
and the eve of “Gathering Day”. The bar is crowded
and there is a great atmosphere. Very little has changed over
the years and that probably is the reason for the Fair’s
success.
The hospitality of the local hoteliers and landlords seems to
have no boundries. The Guinness flows non-stop and the music is
live and loud- all in all the perfect recipe for a great weekend.
Welcome to Killorglin; a village set on a hillside in Southwest
Ireland overlooking
the river Laune. It sits quietly at the foot of McGillycuddy Reeks,
Ireland’s highest mountains. Yet once a year it plays host
to approximately twenty thousand visitors
from all around the globe.
The Date is August the 10th, the first day of the three, known
as Gathering Day,
followed by the Fair Day on the 11th and finally the Scattering
Day on the 12th. The
event is always held on these dates whether they fall mid week
of weekend.
The Puck, a wild mountain goat, is traditionally caught on the
August bank holiday Monday. Then on the morning of Gathering Day
he is paraded through the streets of killingly to rapturous applause
and cheering. On arrival at the town square he is crowned King.
The newly mad monarch is then ceremoniously raised on a scaffold
platform some twenty five feet high. The Puck resides here for
the next three days and nights looking down on his subjects.
BUT
WHY CROWN A GOAT?
What
has he done to deserve such acclaim? There are,
in fact, many versions of the events which culminate in
this Capricorn coronation. Even the dates of its origins
are somewhat contradictory. There are those that believe the crowning
of the goat began as a pre Christian festival
in honour of the Celtic Sun God, Lugh, and to be fair
(no pun intended) Puck Fair has always coincided with
the ancient festival of Lughnasa. Others believe the fair started
as early as the 13th Century, But by far the most popular notion
is that of the connection with Oliver Cromwell and advancing army.
It is said a herd of goats were quietly grazing an a high peak,
when suddenly the noisy throng of Cromwell’s army shattered
their peace. Alarmed and frightened, the goats scattered and ran
into the hills- all of them that is except for one brave male
which, it is said, instead of fleeing with the rest, ran down
the mountain and into Killorglin. The local people on seeing the
exhausted goat sensed something was very wrong and so armed themselves
with Shillelagh and pitchfork. Whether or not the invasion of
Killorglin ever took place remains a mystery, but what did happen
on that fateful day back in 1650 was that Killorglin and it’s
new found hero were given a place in Irish Folklore and have remained
there to this day.
Presently, while the Puck stands regally on high, another event
is unfolding below him. It is the world famous horse fair. This
is as much a part of the festivities as the crowning of the goat
itself. Horse traders are here form as far afield as Europe and
the U.S.A There is a story of a horse bought at Puck Fair which
was ridden by a Marshall Ney, a French Officer, at the battle
of Waterloo. Marshall Ney, was, apparently, a member of Napoleon
Bonepart’s inner echelon. For his personal courage he was
called the “Bravest of the Brave”. When Napoleon returned
form Elba, Ney was sent to arrest him, but instead deserted to
him. He was subsequently shot for treason, but that, of course,
is another story. The second day to the festivities (Fair Day)
sees the buying and selling of cattle and sheep. This most definitely
has a market day feel about it with farmers both local and foreign
descending on the town. Many people think the Fair originated
off the back of the Cattle Market because of the large number
of visitors it received each year.
This may be the case, but anybody visiting Puck Fair these days
can see for
themselves that the festive element far outweighs the buying and
selling of cattle of the trade in horses. These are, of course,
integral aspects of the whole festival, but to say one happened
as a result of the other or Vice-Versa is really quite irrelevant.
The reason people are here simply is to have a good time. On the
evening of the third day
(Scattering Day) King Puck is dethroned. Gone now his power and
his glory. He is
once again a mere goat. Still held in high esteem by his subjects
of only three day
though, he is finally paraded in front of them again as he was
on the day of his
investiture, before being released back into his natural habitat,
the wild wind-swept
Kerry mountains.
So that’s it for another year. Puck Fair is over and people
are thinking of their journey’s home. Before leaving though,
a short while should be taken to sightsee the area where nature
waved its magic wand and created the “Ring of Kerry”-
dramatic mountains, calming lakes, and a thousand rocky outcrops.
Whoever said “See Naples and die” obviously hadn’t
visited Ireland.
Puck Fair
