To stave off the horror at being at home while my better thirds, Lids and Dee, enjoy their holiday road-tripping in the north of the USA, and hanging out with Dee’s mate Kate in Vancouver, I decided that this year Tongie and I would do what we promised each other 3 years ago, and that was to attend something different in Ireland each summer we’re both here. Two years ago we attended the Lisdoonvarna Match Making festival, and visited the Skelligs, this year the auspicious occurrence of the Puck Fair on a weekend drew us to Killorglin, Co. Kerry. The Puck Fair is held on the same dates (10th, 11th and 12th August) every year, so we were extremely lucky that it fell on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this year so we could attend. The origin of King Puck is lost in the mists of time, but you can read some different myths here. Only problem was that, since we decided upon attending for certain on Monday while in Grogan’s, as all great Irish decisions are made, we had the somewhat naive view, that we would be able to get a bus down on Friday afternoon and camp in the site. Neither worked out, and our weekend was all the better for it. I didn’t feel very well from Tuesday afternoon till Thursday cos I had some awful stomach cramps, so it was only on Thursday night that I said, right lets do this and I’ll drive down. My friend Lucia first expressed an interest in joining us, then another mate Dani on Friday morning, and about 2 hours before we left my car was due to be filled with another mate Peter. I know these three heads through Couch Surfing, so I knew it was bound to be oodles of fun, and that I’d definitely get fruit and veggie snacks.
We covered the drive down quicker than I imagined, then parked, found a field where the CS heads set up the tents while Tongie amused me while I had a well earned drink. Then we had some garlic salad, and garlic sauce covered fruit, before heading down into Killorglin. We stopped at the first pub we found, The Fishery, and danced in the rain, while dancing to some great sing-a-long music. Before moving on into the village and climbing the hill to dance with umbrellas we found in a random pub. We also managed to find some discarded cowboy hats, which were unbelievably popular with heads all over Killorglin, and grabbed the first of many a burger that would be had over the weekend before heading back to our tents, having more wine, and absolutely dying with laughter. Tongie and I slept in with Dani, and couldn’t stop laughing. Poor Lucia was bored to tears with Peter’s snoring, though this only made us laugh more.
I cracked up laughing with the first view I got of Dani in the morning wearing his glasses over his sleeping mask. I don’t know how long he’d been sleeping like that, but it was totally unexpected. The next morning we took down the tents, just in case the farmer, who’s field we were in, decided to slash them with a knife as we were on private property, and we found some free ripe plums to add to our breakfast. I’d brought some cereal and milk with me to set me up for the day. After breakfast we slowly made our way into Killorglin. It wasn’t a long walk at all.
View of Killorglin from across the bridge. This side is quite steep.
Tongie, Lucia, King Puck (statue, not actual goat), Peter, mise, Dani on 11th August, around 12:30
A little plaque on the Puck Fair’s make-up.
The bottom of the main street of Killorglin.
Dani’s big head up front, Peter, Tongie, Lucia and cheesy me.
Dani and his cattle.
King Puck with his crown. He kept bobbing his head along to the music, which was awful cute, but can’t imagine the wild goat enjoyed sitting in that cage for 3 days.
The town was buzzing with a lot of characters, there were a few dressing up for the occasion, lots of stalls selling absolutely everything (this included my favourite colouring boards with the felt on them so you can’t colour outside the line, they rock, cos I suck at colouring, so I bought a Tweety bird one), and I bought a “Let’s go Pucking mental!!!” t-shirt. There was music, dancing, drinking, kissing, singing, laughing, shouting and lots of food available on the streets all day. We stopped into a pub to watch the Dublin match, Tongie had a snooze, then when she came back the other three went to the car for their siesta, while Tongie and I roamed the streets discussing life, the universe and everything over some “Chilled Cans”.
Tongie and I chill at Chilled Cans.
A character. Cross between flying Elvis and Santa Claus who played tin whistle over the weekend.
Dani is such a cowboy. With the funniest laugh and most smug grin in the world!
Dani, Lucia and Peter enjoy Puck Fair Fare.
Dani stupidly left me in possession of his camera and now has 50 random photos including some like this of Tongie and I.
While the others slept Tongie and I listened to the Bagad Sonerien Bro Dreger of Perros Guirec Youth Band from Brittany (wonderful music with some good dance along) and then the Accordian Band from Arklow, before sampling the Waltzers, which we were extremely excited about. After that we wandered the streets again checking out amusing places such as Gemma’s hot-dogs, which were industrially sold from the comfort of someone’s living room that faced onto the street. I was somewhat dubious of the health and safety inspectors having ever set foot in this annual huge American flag totting establishment. having some spring rolls, chicken balls, curry sauce and the most delectable apple pie and cream. So yum. Then we went down to catch the The Glenn Miller Legacy, whom I must say were absolutely excellent, we met the chairman of the Puck Fair committee and his wife, who said that these lads were infinitely better than the Elvis the previous night. I must say that I couldn’t imagine better Saturday night music, cos I grew up with all the old tunes they played and sang. Tongie and I sang along to everything that came up, danced our little socks off, and enjoyed the company of all the randomers around.
Bagad Sonerien Bro Dreger of Perros Guirec Youth Band from Brittany.
The girl on the left of the main poster in the front looked like she was either grumpy, or going to cry. Aw…
Another character, albeit a scary one.
The Glenn Miller Legacy band ala sepia photo.
We love you Brendan!
Umbrella dancing. Not a sexy as our dances in the pub the night before, but god loves a trier!
Cheese while loving Brendan.
Nearing the end Lucia and Dani turned up with my wine and we met up with a work mate of Dani’s Jarrel, and his friend Sarah, who became the belle of some tall (Waterford lampost of a) man’s ball. It was great to do some jiving and swing dancing. We may not have been doing it properly, but we sure as shit enjoyed ourselves! As all things must come to an end, so did the wonderful music and atmosphere. You could see that the band would have loved nothing more than to play another hour, so hyped was the crowd, but we wanted to get our group motivated to go to the fun fair, so it was lucky they decided to finish up then.
The delectable Lucia.
Dani, Lucia, mise, Sarah (kneeling), Tongie, Peter, Jarrel.
Claire (from Tyrone), Dani, mise, Lucia, Tongie, Ann-Marie (from Derry), Sarah, Jarrel, Paddy (or Piddy from Derry) and Peter.
One of the funniest parts of the night was when we adopted some heads from the North and dragged everyone onto the fun house, or Fun City, as it was called. Lucia, Dani and some others had never set foot in a fun house before and didn’t know what to expect, and most of the Irish hadn’t been in one since they were 12, so it was bound to be an adventure. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the weekend for everyone as we all just buzzed off each other and took forever going through with the stomach pains of laughter we had. Dani captured most of it with the video on his digital camera, and it is ever so funny. The rest of the night was spent being hyper-active and buzzing off each other and the crowds in Killorglin. On the way back to our tents to watch Perseids’ meteors shower, we stumbled upon a girl from Tralee who’d been relieved of her mobile and her wallet, so Tongie and I felt impelled to help her. It turned out to be a little odd listening to her have an argument with her ex-boyfriend, whose number was the only one she could remember, and then with his sister who was going to pick her up in the town. After we walked her back into town, and it got really damn cold, Tongie and I went back to my car and decided to sleep there, which turned out to be a great idea as the night was bloody cold.
Sunday morning we listened to David O’Doherty’s cd before grabbing some lunch and making our way home. Pretty uneventful return, but it went by quicker than the journey down, and I was incredibly tired, so that the coffee had to keep coming. All in all it was a brilliant weekend. Thanks to my traveling companions, and to Dani for providing the photos. Can’t wait to see yours Tongie!
Fun City limits.
Dani and Peter take over the wood drumming session from two excellent street performers.