Killorglin history & heritage
Puck Fair
A Chronology
From the ancient festival of Lughnasa and the medieval Lammas tradition to the railway age and the crowning of King Puck, this chronology traces the development of Killorglin’s famous August fair.
Ancient and medieval origins
From Lughnasa to Lammas Day
Lughnasa
LUGHNASA, August 1st was the start of Autumn in the pre-Christian calendar. Named in honour of the Celtic God -LUGH- it was the third portal in the seasonal/pastoral division of the year. The other three; IMBOLG (February 1st); BEALTAINE (May 1st) and SAMHAIN (November 1st) were significant festivals marking the start of Spring, Summer and Winter.
Lammas Day
Once Christianity expanded its foothold (5th-7thcenturies) in Ireland, it grafted its own motifs onto existing beliefs and ceremonies. Given the importance of bread in the medieval diet (the potato only became an integral part of the Irish diet in the 18th century) and the central place of bread (the Eucharist) in the mass, Lughnasa became Lammas (loaf-mass) Day where bread was blessed in thanks for a bountiful harvest.
Drung Hill gatherings
Drung Hill, near Mountain Stage on the Glenbeigh/Cahersiveen road, was still used as a ‘Lughnasa gathering site’ until the middle of the nineteenth century, when like so many other popular practices in rural Ireland, disappeared after the cataclysmic effects of the 1845-49 Famine.
The settlement takes shape
Early Killorglin and the first fair
Cill Lorcáin and the early settlement
Cill Lorcáin - the Church of Saint Lawrence - was named in honour of Saint Lawrence, ‘the Martyr’ who was executed by the Romans on August 10th in the year 258 AD. The Farrantoreen Stone, an eight century cross slab located about two hundred metres from the County Bridge, is the earliest Christian artefact we have in Killorglin. First discovered in 1906 it is a shame it still languishes in a marsh where its inscriptions are further eroded at every tide. In 1215, the Fitzgeralds constructed a castle on the Laune as part of a series of frontier defences on the Laune/ Maine valley. By the 1280s a settlement - a cluster of houses - developed at the Dromavalla side of the river, which is why the impressive church located in Dromavally cemetery (listed as a ruin in 1682) - under the patronage of the Augustinian Prior of Killagha in a 1302 inventory of ecclesiastical properties - was built there.
The Conway estate
It is probable the current site of Killorglin only dates from the Elisabethan colonisation. Jenkin Conway lived at Reen Lodge (Ballykissane Cross) from 1601 onwards as Killorglin castle, which he received under the terms of the Plantation of Munster in 1587, was destroyed by Fineen McCarthy in August 1600, and would remain as a ruin until 1690.
The foundation document
Jenkin Conway died about 1611 and the Manor of Killorglin - about 5000 acres - passed to his son, Jenkin, who obtained a Patent in 1613 to hold a ‘fair on Lammas day and 2 days after’ from the Irish Parliament. This is the foundation document for the event which we now celebrate as Puck Fair.
The Blennerhassett inheritance
Robert Blennerhassett married Alice Conway in the 1650s and inherited her estate as a result of the marriage. Sir William Petty completed the Down Survey in this decade on behalf of the Commonwealth (Cromwellian) Government.
Population and census
The 1659 Census recorded the population of Killorglin village as 26 people (22 were Irish and 4 were English) and the rural hinterland 123 (113 Irish and 10 English including Robert Hassett and his family). Most probably we can infer Irish as Catholic and English as Protestant (Anglican).
Eamon O Flaherty writing in the 1659 Census for Kerry estimates Petty’s population figures are based on poll tax returns and consequently multiply the core figures by three to reflect the actual population. This would mean that around 78 people lived in Killorglin (village) in 1659, which was 45 years after the first Lammas fair (August 1614) was held. This was the equivalent of about a dozen households, based on a six person family.
By comparison Kerry’s three principal towns had a population as follows. Tralee had 831, Killarney had 336 and Dingle which was Kerry’s main port had a population of 477.
Landlords, calendars and commerce
Castleconway and the eighteenth century
‘Black Jack’ and Castle Conway House
Captain John - ‘Black Jack’ - Blennerhassett (1650-1738) spent eighteen months in Jacobean prisons in Galway and Dublin between 1689-1690. He was released from custody after King William the third’s victory at the battle of the Boyne in July 1690. Returning to Killorglin he set about rebuilding a new Mansion on the site of the ruined castle which Elisabethan ancestor Jenkin Conway abandoned in 1600. He named his new home Castle Conway House, changing the name of the village from Killorglin to Castleconway in the 1690’s. This situation would persist for a century (1795) until Harmon Blennerhassett (1765-1831), who was ‘Black Jack’s’ great grandson, sold the Manor of Killorglin to Thomas Mullins - later Baron Ventry - of Burnham, Dingle for £28,000 in November 1795.
The fair moves to 11 August
In 1752 the ‘Protestant’ states of northern Europe - England, the Netherlands and Scandinavia - accepted the adjustment of the Julian calendar outlined by Pope Gregory 13th in 1582 which would not have been palatable in the late 16th century given the animosity of the ‘newly Reformed Churches’ on the issue of Papal authority on anything. In practical terms the 10 day adjustment meant that the date of the Lammas Fair changed from August 1st to August 11th.
Commercial competition from Milltown
In the more mundane world, the greatest challenge to Killorglin’s commercial trading position in the 1750s was the emergence of the newly established village of Milltown by Sir John Godfrey of Bushfield house, most of whose residents came from Romney in Kent. Along with Sir William Petty’s patronage of Kenmare, Milltown was another example of a successful and sustainable ‘Puritan Colony’ in Kerry.
Three livestock fairs
In 1772 Conway Blennerhassett (1720-90), the last resident landlord in Kerry changed the three days fair (Aug 11th - 13th) in favour of three livestock fairs to be held on May 1st, June 1st and November 1st. On one level this ensured a more widely distributed income stream from sales tax, on cattle and horses in particular, as well as a wider streamlining of the estate’s revenue. May 1st and June 1st were ‘Gale days’ when the two rental payments for the year were collected by the Blennerhassett’s land agents. Conway Blennerhassett must have been an astute businessman (bonds and stocks in London) as he left £20,000 to his only surviving son, twenty-five-year-old, Harmon in 1791.
The first newspaper reference
The first newspaper reference to Killorglin’s August Fair comes from a letter written by a Tralee resident incensed by the blatant behaviour of Rightboys - an Agrarian Secret Society - activists in both Milltown and Killorglin in the Summer of 1788. The letter was featured in both the Freeman’s Journal and the Dublin Evening Mail. However in this article there is no reference to Puck Fair which suggests that the term was not yet associated with the August Fair in the closing decades of the eighteenth century.
The move to Reen Lodge
In an unrelated issue it seems the Blennerhassett family were living in Reen Lodge as distinct from Castleconway house by the 1780s. It is unclear on what grounds the family had abandoned their principal residence.
Expansion and national significance
The nineteenth-century fair
The Foley family and the ‘Baron of the Fair’
The Mullins family had very little contact with or direct involvement in Killorglin once they had purchased the estate. Within a few years they had either sold or leased the sales rights of the August Fair to the Foley Family of Anglont. This would have involved paying a substantial lump sum (several hundred pounds) on the Foley part. ‘Big Mick’ Foley 1783-1867 of Anglont had the title ‘Baron of the Fair’ in the popular imagination. He was the first of several generations of the Anglont family to hold this distinction.
Faction fighting at the fair
The Foley family were also enthusiastic supporters of a very popular social encounter of fairs in pre Famine Ireland. In Kieran Foley’s ‘History of Killorglin’ there is a police report on an 1837 clash at Puck Fair and includes a photograph of ‘Big Mick’ Foley who was a significant figure in the evolution of the Fair in the 19th century.
The Land League monster meeting
Michael Davitt (1846-1906) established a Land league in Co. Mayo in September 1879 to secure a reduction in rents to alleviate distressed conditions for tenant farmers. Timothy, Edward and Daniel Harrington from Castletownbeare in West Cork took responsibility for organising the movement in Kerry. They established The Kerry Sentinel newspaper in 1879. They chose Killorglin as the venue for a monster meeting on August 11th 1880 as the launchpad for the organisation. This reflects the importance of Puck Fair in the 1880s.
The railway transforms access
In January 1885 the Great Southern and Western Railway (GSWR) opened the Farranfore-Killorglin branch line to passenger and freight traffic. Built between July 1882 and December 1894 the 12 mile line connected Killorglin to the GSWR rail network which measured 850 miles in length. In practical terms cattle dealers could now use cattle wagons to transport livestock bought at Puck Fair across Munster, Leinster and Connaught which were all served by the GSWR headquarter at Kingsbridge Station (renamed Heuston Station in 1966). The Killorglin line was extended to Reenard Point (27 miles) between 1890-1893. Apart from the livestock side it enabled people from all over Kerry to avail of day return tickets to Killorglin for Puck Fair. CIE closed the Killorglin-Farranfore branch line in January 1960.
A town built to welcome the crowds
Public houses and accommodation
The Octogenarian remembers
In the 1890s a Killorglin man wrote to the Kerry Sentinel newspaper using the cover name The Octogenarian. In it he describes the Killorglin of his youth in the 1820s and 1830s.
Pubs and brewery tents
Three public houses were mentioned - John Charley’s, Hickson’s and Kelliher’s. Obviously 3 pubs could not cater for the inflow of people over the 3 days of Puck Fair. Breweries set up tents for the Fair in which companies like Murphy’s and Beamish and Crawford sold their products.
The Square and its businesses
John Charley (1779-1869) originally from Cromane traded from the Square for 50 years until his death in 1869 in what is now the site of the current Garda station. Hickson’s pub was next door to Charley’s. In those times Killorglin was only a 2 street town, namely the Square and Upper Bridge Street. Kelliher’s pub was located on what is now the location of Crowley’s Pharmacy. This was also the site of Foley Hotel, trading as the Ventry Arms until 1878, when James Teahan (the new owner) renamed it as The Commercial Hotel. Biddy Donoghue worked here in the 1860’s.
Hotels and the 72-hour tradition
The 1821 Census recorded Killorglin’s population as 562 inhabitants consisting of 96 families. In 1825 Timothy Curran built the second house in Lower Bridge Street. The first was St James’ Anglican church, constructed in 1816. Curran ran an Inn on Killarney Road (as Annadale Road was known then) which was used as an overnight stop for the Bianconi Coach company in the 1830. Killarney native Jeffrey Morris bought Curran’s, renaming it the Royal Laune Hotel in the 1860s. Both these hotels had public houses and public houses would provide accommodation to cattle dealers the night before and after the fair. This is the origin of the 72 hour opening at Puck Fair which was only modified to a 3:00am closing time in 1968.
Mascot, symbolism and tradition
The rise of King Puck
The Foley mascot
I have already referred to the Foley Family of Anglont in relation to two aspects of Puck Fair: their role as Barons of the Fair from the early 1800s and enthusiastic practitioners of Faction fighting in the pre-famine era. The Foleys used a ‘Puck’ goat as a mascot, which was on a leash to intimidate their opponents.
“No goat was crowned in 1819 because of Faction fighting.”
The Octogenarian, writing in the Kerry Sentinel
The crowning of a king
The Octogenarian, writing in one of his Kerry Sentinel letters in the 1800s noted “no goat was crowned in 1819 because of Faction fighting”. This suggests that at some point after the departure of the Blennerhassetts from Killorglin in 1795-96, locals began crowning a male goat as ‘King’ of the fair held each August.
Religious associations
The goat had very negative associations in both medieval Catholicism and reformed Christianity where the cloven hoofed, bearded, horned, male goat had satanic links. Neither the Norman/Fitzgeralds, nor the Tudor/Stuart successors the Conway/Blennerhassetts, would have tolerated a goat being used as ‘King’ of the fair. The report previously quoted on Rightboys activity in Killorglin on the eve of the August fair in 1788 makes no reference to Puck Fair.
A ribald figure
In early 19th century Ireland the goat was a ribald figure and used in a Killorglin context as a way of hinting at the bacchanalian aspects of the fair, i.e., 72 hours of drinking time and making merry.
An established Puck Fair tradition
Regular reports of the crowning of a goat at Puck Fair only appear from the 1840s onwards. In his 2013 book ‘Puck Fair - a History’, Sean Morehan expresses the view that the Foley family (as Barons of the Fair) given their Faction history, used their mascot as an advertising gimmick for the Fair. This view is also echoed in a TV interview given by the famous Cork composer Sean Ó Riada in the 1960s. He was the protégé of Sean Ó Sé, the singer with Ceoltóirí Chualann, whose recording of ‘An Poc ar Buile’ and whose performance of the song on Coronation Day became a Puck Fair institution. Seán Ó Sé passed away in 2026. Ar dheis Dé to raibh a anam dílis.