Friday, April 5, 2024

The goat king of Ireland

There's an old Irish festival that crowns a goat king each year.

World History

P lenty of small towns have animal mayors, but what about animal monarchs? Killorglin, Ireland, has one: a goat king it crowns in a festival every year. The Puck Fair has been held since at least the 1600s, and many believe it's considerably older. It's thought to have originated with the legend of a goat alerting the townsfolk of English raiders led by Oliver Cromwell one fateful day, thereby giving the noble residents of Killorgin enough time to fortify their defenses and save their home from the encroaching Englishmen. (Others believe it's merely related to pagan symbols and rituals, a rather less fanciful theory.)

The festival is held from August 10 to 12 each year and attracts visitors from near and far hoping to take part in the royal caprine festivities. On day one, known as "the Gathering," a wild male goat found in the nearby wilderness is crowned for the duration of the festivities by Queen Puck, a young girl from the town. Fair Day follows on day two, with a cattle fair held while King Puck observes from his regal scaffold. It comes to an end, as all good things must, with "the Scattering" on day three, when King Puck is returned to the wilderness and presumably tells his fellow goats the strangest story they've ever heard.

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By the Numbers

Population of Killorglin

2,163

Years that goats have been domesticated

10,000

Did you know?

There's an evolutionary reason for goats' horizontal pupils.

If you've ever been weirded out by the fact that goats have horizontal pupils, you aren't alone. There's a good reason for the unnerving shape, though: The long pupils give goats a panoramic view of their surroundings and take in more light, allowing them to more easily see predators hoping to make a meal of them. A 2015 study examining the reasons behind animals' different pupil shapes also found that grazing animals continue rotating their eyes even when lowering their heads to eat, essentially keeping their heads on a swivel at their most vulnerable to ensure they aren't ambushed. As goats are social herd animals and are happiest when in the company of fellow goats, they also rely on safety in numbers.