Puck Fair,
a festival held in the village of Killorglin in County Kerry. A buck goat (in Irish poc, pronounced 'puck'), white if possible and with decorated horns, is made king and driven around in triumph on the first day. On the third day he is released. The well-known song An poc ar buile, 'The Mad Goat', is associated with the festival, which, tradition has it, was imported into Killorglin from Kilgobnet. The festival was connected with Lughnasadh and dates at least from the seventeenth century. The whole business smacks of paganism and one thinks of rituals involving temporary kings and the Hebrew 'scapegoat', but the Kerry people tell the following legend about its origin. A young goatherd overheard Cromwellian soldiers plotting to destroy Killorglin. Not believed, he released the goats, led by the he-goat, into the soldiers' camp as they slept. As a result, the people of Killorglin have commemorated their hircine deliverer by holding the fair.