Puck Fair, one of Ireland’s oldest festivals, where a goat is crowned king for three days and three nights, will see its late-night drinking tradition survive for 2025 after an appeal by publicans in Killorglin succeeded in the Circuit Court in Killarney on Tuesday.
On July 10 at the District Court of Killorglin, sitting in Caherciveen, 14 publicans applied under Section 10 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962 for the annual special exemption to 3am over the three principal nights of the August Fair, Gathering, Fair and Scattering, on August 10, 11 and 12.
However, gardaí objected on the grounds of straitened resources. District court Judge David Waters set the opening at 2am, in line with the Garda submission, saying the fair was not all about drinking.
On Tuesday in the Circuit Court in Killarney, Judge Terence O’Sullivan said he saw no grounds to shorten Puck Fair’s traditional drinking time to 2am.
Puck Fair dated to 1603, the last year of the reign of King James I of England, Judge O’Sullivan noted. Since the 1970s, the pub closing time at Puck was 3am.
“Prior to that, there was a 24-hour opening of the pubs in Killorglin,” barrister Katie O’Connell, instructed by John O’Dwyer solicitor, had told the court.
All day and family activities took place and afterwards people would go for a drink. Street entertainment ended at midnight and then the fair volunteers would like to go for a drink to relax and enjoy themselves, Ms O’Connell said. Puck Fair was “bigger than Christmas” for people from the region, the barrister said.
“Chipping away” at the status of the festival was taking place. The statue of the Puck Goat sat at the entrance to the town and economically the festival was important to Killorglin, with people put through college and school on the strength of the fair.
Only the gardaí, not the locals, had objected, Ms O’Connell also said.
Garda Supt John Ryan of Killarney was called to give evidence by State solicitor Diane Reidy. The garda objections were twofold, Supt Ryan said.
Pubs were given an exemption to open to 2am the night preceding Puck Fair and the garda felt that four nights to 2am would be sufficient given the street entertainment finished at midnight.
Having pubs open to 3am needed additional police resources. It was reasonable to reduce it by the hour, he felt. Cross-examined by Ms O’Connell, Supt Ryan agreed the fair was “the lifeblood of Killorglin”.
Ms O’Connell also told Judge O’Sullivan that the organisers of the festival — who are all volunteers — did not want everyone spilling out from the pubs at 2am and the extra hour would mean there was safer dispersal and organisation of buses and taxis.
“It’s always been 3am. Nothing warrants the reduction,” she said.
While she appreciated the extra garda resources was paid for through taxes, the Killorglin community were also tax payers. The festival organisers contributed €3,000 to the resources of the gardaí, she said.
“Judge Waters thought the front line (policing) should trump anything else,” she said.
State solicitor Diane Reidy said the issue was one of resources, not public order and Puck Fair was the only festival in Kerry seeking to open to 3am.
“It’s the proper allocation of resources and the additional strain on Garda resources to police it,” Ms Reidy said.
In his decision, delivered after a recess to look at the legislation, Judge O’Sullivan said the traditional opening had been to 3am, there was no evidence of anyone in the locality objecting on noise or nuisance grounds.
“In reality the objection is about the pressure on police resources without any particular incident,” the judge said.
Judge O’Sullivan said he appreciated the District Court Judge had “more connection” with the locality than himself, but he did not see any grounds to depart from the tradition, he said, granting the exemptions to 3am over three nights.