My Fav Irish Festivals

I went to Irish dance when I was four. I was playing the tin whistle when I was five. So, I think certain things are bred into you.

Dolores O'Riordan

A couple of weeks ago it was St Paddy’s day, if you’ve been here with me from the beginning, you’ll know that, despite my proud Irish heritage, I’ve never really understood the global hysteria about celebrating the patron saint of Ireland. I think we all know the Irish like a good hooley but honestly, we don’t really need an excuse!

That all said, it’s apparently mandatory for me to go out and celebrate good old St Pádraig, so a few Sundays ago, off I went with a bunch of friends to our local to sample what craic London had to offer. To be fair, it was a good night, the atmosphere was great, there was a bit of a sing song where upon I pretty much murdered the fields of Athenry and I even had my one and only annual pint of Guinness to keep the stereotype monitors happy, (don’t tell them but it was actually a Black Velvet!!).

A few days later I was in the coffee bar at the gym with a couple of friends discussing the virtues of the evening and eventually the subject came around to a potential trip to Ireland. We’ve been as a group of friends before and had a rare auld time, last time we combined a trip to Dublin with a concert at the Point featuring Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds which was excellent.

I love Dublin, don’t get me wrong but I fancied doing something a little different so I suggested we maybe think about attending one of the many traditional Irish festivals, as there seemed to be some love for this idea I went onto describe two of my favourites;

Puck Fair - Aonach an Phoic

Allegedly Irelands oldest festival, it takes place every year in the beautiful town if Killorglin on the 10th, 11th and 12th of August. Every year a group of people go up into the mountains and catch a wild goat, (well actually, these days he usually comes from a mountain farm!). The goat is then brought back to the town and the “Queen of Puck”, traditionally a young school girl from one of the local primary schools, crowns the goat “King Puck”.

There are loads of theories and legends around how the fair came about however, the most popular story relates to the time when the Cromwellian armies were rampaging through Ireland in a kind of rape and pillage kind of way. Legend has it that the army came across a large herd of wild goats high in the mountains above Killorglin, the leader of the herd fought off one of the invaders and ran down the mountain. When he arrived in the town, he made such a fuss the locals figured something was a miss and began to fortify the perimeter of the town. When the army arrived, they took one look at the pitch fork wielding natives and thought, feck it, we’ll go a raping and a pillaging elsewhere and thus the town was saved.

In the middle of Killorglin town square, the goat is crowned which signifies that the festivities may begin! The “King” is then put into a small cage on a high stand for three days where he is treated reverentially by the amassed populous. On the 3rd day of the fair, he is brought down to be led back to his mountain home. The atmosphere is amazing partly because the pubs stay open until 3.00am!

Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann

The Fleadh Cheoil is essentially a traditional Irish music festival during which, bands, musicians, dancers and singers compete to be the best in their individual category. The venue tends to move up and down the country but tends to run from the same town for two years, for the town given the privilege of hosting the Fleadh Cheoil it’s a huge honour and provides a massive boost to the local tourism industry, this year as it was last year, it will be hosted by Drogheda just north of Dublin in County Louth.

This year it’s from the 11th to the 18th of August so if you’re at Puck you may as well extend your stay and mosey on up to the East coast.

The Festival attracts musicians, singers and dancers from all over the world, all competing to be the best in their own individual categories. Subsequently no matter where you go in the town during the festival you will find small four-piece cèilidh bands, troupes of Irish dancers or single musicians playing the fiddle or the Bodhrán on every street corner and in every bar. The atmosphere is electric and the place is awash with smiling faces and laughter! The last one I went to was in 2002 when Listowel hosted the event so I’m well overdue a visit!

There is a third festival which I also love, The Rose of Tralee festival however, that one deserves a blog all on its own, watch this space!

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