Locals try to make it home for Puck Fair

THE SUN came out yesterday for revellers at the Puck Fair festival in Killorglin, Co Kerry, after an opening day on which the weather was more suited to ducks than goats.

The festival has undergone a transformation in recent years, attempting to shake off its image as a three-day boozing and brawling extravaganza.

Nowadays at Puck you are as likely to take in a circus act or watch a crafts display as you are to spend all your time clowning around in the local.

Standing outside Bunkers Bar, one peaked-capped festivalgoer summed up the almost casual uniqueness of the event. “We don’t know here what all the fuss over the Queen’s visit was about. Sure, we’ve been welcoming royalty every year for almost 400 years,” he said.

Organisers expect up to 60,000 people to participate in the festival by the time it ends tonight and it is worth up to €6 million to the local economy. Declan Mangan, chairman of Puck Fair felt the festival was somewhat recession proof.

“All entertainment is free, so you can spend three days in Killorglin and not have to put your hand in your pocket, except what you might want to eat and drink. The uniqueness is part of the appeal. There are very few places in the world where you can see the goat acting the king and the people below him acting the goat,” he said. Puck Fair is also a time when many of those who have emigrated from the area in recent years make an effort to return home for a visit. Ask any local to choose between coming home at Christmas and coming home for Puck and often Puck will win out.

Kerry O’Sullivan, who works for the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been living abroad for several years, yet always managed to return, even when she was posted in places such as East Timor.

“I just moved back to Dublin but I’m on the road a while and always come back for Puck.  Wherever I worked I always let them know I needed the first two weeks in August off and also possible the third week in September for the All-Ireland. I was queen of Puck in 1988 so I have a long tradition with the fair.”

Siblings John and Meave O’Sullivan were reuniting in Falvey’s Bar after two years, with the former living in Australia and the latter in London. “I think a lot of sons and daughters come home for Puck, but I don’t think the parents see a lot of them, to be honest,” said Ms O’Sullivan.