Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry

Subject: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: dianavan
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 03:36 PM

I once used this fair for some anthropological research. I must say it was a bit sketchy. Can you help me? What are the origins? Is it still happening? How has it changed over the years. Any info would be appreciated.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 03:44 PM

www.puckfair.ie Yes still on, aug 10 to aug 12 this year.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: dianavan
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:50 PM

Thanks guest, but I'm not looking for the "official" version. I'm interested in experiences, impressions, heresay, thoughts on the ancient origins, etc.... Busking certainly plays a big role (or did) as well as the presence of Tinkers (travelling people), and horse trading. Not to mention the drinking!

Its certainly modernized - with sponsors, big stages and sporting events but I have questions about the traditions.

Why 3 days? Why a goat? Why a tower? Why the crown and the kingship? Whats the scattering all about? Who captures the goat? Is it true they used to band his horns? What songs might have originated at this particular fair?

Thanks,

d

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:51 PM

I met some blonde twins there, or was that a spoonerism?


Nigel

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: Big Tim
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 03:15 PM

If it's Puck drinking and fighting you want, listen to Pecker Dunne singing "Portlaoise Jail".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: dianavan
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 06:24 PM

Pecker Dunne? I met him briefly at the very place. Being very young and never having met someone with such a booming voice, I was very scared. I did learn to pass the cup, though. I can't believe he's still around. Is he still travelling? Isn't he a legend or something?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: dianavan
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 06:46 PM

How can I hear, Portlaoise Jail? Its not in the lyrics base here and I couldn't find it on the net. Do you have a link? I did read a short biography that described him as looking like a Mexican bandit. Maybe thats why he scared me.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: Big Tim
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 10:49 AM

It's on an album called "Travellin'People" with PD and Margaret Barry. Can't help you with the tune but here are the words, written by Pecker Dunne. There's a pic of Pecker, under 'banjo' in Companion to Irish Traditional Music, edited by Fintan Vallely, Cork University Press, 1999.

PORTLAOISE JAIL

Oh! For thurty [sic] years I've been a tinker,
I've tramped the mountains and the glen,
I've courted girls in every county,
And I fought the very best of men,
I drank an awful lot of porter,
I've slept in sun and snow and gale,
But the life I loved was taken from me,
When is pent two years in Portlaoise Jail.

Chorus
Portlaoise Jail would tame a tiger, try me boys and do get bail,
There's many a heart that sobs and sighs, inside the walls of P.J.

I joined a camp outside Killorglin,
The night before they crowned the King,
There was song and dance and plenty porter,
With our wagons formed around in a ring,
Till a foxy lass sat down beside me,
Bedad, says I, I'm alright here,
But her husband roared and leapt between us,
And he knocked me down with a kick in the ear,
I hit him hard below the navel,
He hit the ground with a mighty wail,
His neck was broke, he died in seconds,
And I spent Puck Fair in Portlaoise Jail.

Chorus.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: John Routledge
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 07:53 PM

There is a double CD called "From Puck to Appleby" which has 44 songs and stories from Irish travellers in England. The recordings were made by Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie

Info from

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: John Routledge
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 07:56 PM

SORRY - Info from www.mtrecords.co.uk

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: dianavan
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 09:16 PM

Thanks John - I'll have a listen.

d

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 10:12 PM

Come on now Everybody - Puck Fair!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 03 Feb 04 - 04:10 AM

Dianavan, yes, it's still going strong; why the goat and the tower - well, a billy-goat is captured and put up on the tower for the three (?) days of the fair - something animal-lovers have been trying to stop for years on cruelty grounds - and the fair itself is a festival of carousal and arousal. There are theories that it's a fertility festival; certainly if the puck bows in your direction you're supposed to have a child within the year. Never been myself, not much into drinking.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Puck Fair in Co. Kerry
From: dianavan
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 06:50 PM

One thing that everyone agrees on is that this is a 3-day drunk. No doubt about that! There was also lots of very good, traditional music when I was their.

Maybe the drinking is the last vestige of an ancient harvest festival. When is the barley harvested in Kerry?