Puck Fair Killorglin Music and horses August 2018

Horse Fair: Evan’s Field – Tralee Road One of Ireland’s oldest and continuously-run Horse Fairs, it originally took place on the streets of Killorglin, as was the tradition of many of the fairs, but has now moved to a green-field site.
Cuisle Ceoil Workshop [ part of Puck Fair] Learn the Art of the Bodhrán, Bones & Spoons Workshop includes materials, handouts and presentation on the history of the bodhrán from a Kerry perspective.
For Puck, Tim O’Shea and Friends will be performing: Music, Workshops for Pipe and Drum, Irish Dance, and much more.
Spraoi Chiarrai is a collection of Kerry dancers, musicians and a Storyteller. Plenty of songs, music, stories and Irish Dance. They are Killarney based and started performing together 13 years ago

HISTORY of beginning; There are many legends that suggest an origin for the Fair, many of which are wildly inventive, but there is no written record stating when the Fair started. The origins of the fair have thus been lost in the mists of antiquity, and various commissions set up over the past two hundred years have tried in vain to date them. Evidence suggests that the fair existed long before written record of everyday occurrences were kept. And another theory relates back to the time of Daniel O’Connell, who in 1808 was an unknown barrister. It seems that before that year, the August Fair held in Killorglin had been a toll fair, but an Act of the British Parliament empowered the Viceroy or Lord Lieutenant in Dublin to make an order, at his own discretion, making it unlawful to levy tolls at cattle, horse or sheep fairs. Tolls in Killorglin at this time were collected by the local landlord – Mr Harman Blennerhassett – who had fallen into bad graces with the authorities in Dublin Castle and as a result the Viceroy robbed him of his right to levy tolls. Blennerhassett enlisted the services of the young Daniel O’Connell, who in an effort to reverse the decision decided that goats were not covered by the document and that the landlord would be legally entitled to hold a goat fair, and levy his tolls as usual. Thus the fair was promptly advertised as taking place on August 10th, 1808, and on that day a goat was hoisted on a stage to show to all attending that the fair was indeed a goat fair – thus Blennerhassett collected his toll money and Killorglin gained a King.