Wednesday, November 29, 2017

King Puck and Oliver Cromwell in Killarney

 The British are Coming!  Does this look Paul Revere?  This statue is King Puck with his crown, but every year in County Kerry a goat is honored.  Don't scratch your head, I shall explain..  An old festival, in fact the oldest in all of Ireland honors a goat.  Once a year a male goat (a puck) is captured and honored for 3 days in town squares.  The goat is well fed, and put high on a scaffolding to survey his territory.
 The goat is crowned King by The Queen Puck, who is not another goat, but an honored school girl chosen.  Once she crowns the King, the festivities begin.  There is music, food, and of course drink.  There is dancing.  The local pubs stay open later than normal.  At the end of the 3 days, King Puck is returned to the wilds to resume his normal life.
It is not known how long this festival has been in existence or perhaps how it all began, but......it is believed to be a result of The attempt of England's Oliver Cromwell's Raiders to over take Killarney, (Killorglin).  The goats were in the fields as Cromwell's Raiders tried to make they way to town, they spooked the herd of goats.  One said goat made it to town, tired and bedraggled.  Towns people immediately knew something was afoot.  They were able to fortify the town and ward off The English Invaders.  The Paul Revere Goat, certainly something to be celebrated.  The 3 day festival starts every year on August 10th.

*the 2nd and 3rd picture are a small town square where our tour bus stopped briefly.  No scaffolding there, and it wasn't the time of the festival, but apparently some towns/villages honor goats throughout the year.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Cork, Lusitania and The Easter Rising/Rebullion

Memorial to all who perished in The Lusitania.  This is Cork.  This is located in the town square.
 A very pretty little seaside town, lots of pretty flowers, and lots of little pubs.
 A sidewalk memorial to those executed in The Easter Rising/Rebellion.  Their names are Capt Mick Leahy, Seamus Fitzgerald, Paddy Wheldon, Jack Stack, Joe Reid, Ernie Fowler, James O'Connell, William O Regan, Donald Healy, William Ralph, Bunny Reid, Liam Ahern, Jack O'Connell, also Pat Curran IRB, John Dowling ICA, Liam O'Brien IRB

The back of the stone.  If you look directly across the street, you'll see the ticket office which is directly in front of the long locked harbor where the Titanic departed from.

The Easter Rising, also called The Easter Rebellion started on Easter Monday, April 24th 1916, and ended on April 29, 1916.  It took place primarily in Dublin, but also in Meath, Galway, Louth, Wexford and Cork.

The Rebellion was against The British.  The leaders of the rebellion hoped for help from Germany since Germany was against The British in WWI.  They did obtain one shipment of firearms from Germany.  They also expected their fellow Irishmen to join them once the fighting started and they declared a free Irish State.  Most Irish did not support them.  There were approximately 1600 followers of the cause.  A small number easily handled by The British is a handful of days.

Somewhere around 2,000 were killed or injured during the standoff.  The leaders were than executed.  Once the leaders were executed The British continued with martial law, and arrest some 3,000 citizens they believe had been involved, or supported the rebellion in anyway.  Those arrested did not have any trials to determine their guilt or innocence.  The British sent about 1800 of those 3,000 to England where they remained prisoners, never having a trial.  The quick executions, mass arrests, and imprisonment turned many Irish against England.  This made those executed Martyrs of the Cause.

**These aren't my pictures, but my friends Jane's.  Her's were better than mine.