Ain't no Carnival like an Irish Carnival

by Tasha in Ireland

Here in Killarney, in the weeks leading up to Puck Fair (which may be the craziest festival in Ireland - where a nearby town shuts down for 3 days to celebrate crowning a goat as king...which is brilliant!) the circus and fun fair rock into town before hitting Killorglin to crown King Puck.

Oh yes, that's a crown! photo by: irishfireside

As Aussies and amateur thrill seekers the mere presence of canival rides (and for only a few euros!) was simply too much temptation. So we set out to rock the carnival Irish style!

Disclaimer: "Irish style" in no way includes a massive imbibement of alcohol. This however may be limited to us specifically as the fair may have coincidentally been located nearby 4 separate drinking venues. This in actual fact may have been coincidence as a block in Killarney usually contains no less than 6 drinking venues so perhaps finding an inner-town location with less than 5 pubs within spitting distance may indeed have taken some wrangling.

While small in number these rides make up for it in gusto. The image of the the high velocity claw swing brought our friend Olivia to tears when imaging the frail human bodies twisting and hurtling towards the ground.

In consideration of her feelings I will instead show the ladybug water gun firing range...which totally exists!

For the adventurous there is the Ice Jet which seems like a nice sweet circular ride until you are locked in and you notice the gleam in the conductor's eye as he lays on the throttle. 100% worth it to see the looks of sheer joy on the kids' faces on the ride, contrasted with the faces of pure horror of their parents watching the ride whiz by at a slightly-too-fast-to-be-considered-safe speed.



Rounding it out are the disco-futuristic teacups, bumper-cars, cars-on-a-track for the littlies (with their shameless copy-write infringement), and ball in a churn (this is Ireland)

Is it just me - or do they look like spinning little darleks?

What better way to shrug off crappy guests than to dazzle yourself with local colour, a churro or two and some pretty neon lights. At least - until Puck Fest...

He is waiting... photo by: thephotoholic

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