The Stage

Fossett’s Circus show honours Irish arts minister O’Donoghue

Published Wednesday 23 May 2007 at 12:10 by Anthony Garvey

The 132-year-old Fossett’s Circus travelled to Killarney at the weekend to pay tribute to the man who helped keep it on the road, outgoing Irish arts minister John O’Donoghue.

The minister, currently fighting a general election campaign, was guest of honour at a special performance in recognition of his decision “to elevate the circus to an art form”. It allows circuses to apply for financial aid through the Arts Council and has been crucial to Fossett’s survival, according to the family.

Robert Fossett, one of six family members who run the business, said the minister was one of the first in Europe to recognise circus as a mainstream art form on a par with theatre or ballet, and qualifying for grants in the same way. In recent years, Fossett’s had received 285,000 euro in grants, and he warned: “The circus would find it extremely difficult to survive now without state aid.

“Our costs are enormous. We have 50 staff, 27 trucks and an 850-seat big top, as well as lighting and sound equipment, trailers and living accommodation, all of which have to be transported from location to location every week. It’s a hugely expensive undertaking and we need all the support we can get just to keep going.” He added that the circus tours for 35 weeks of the year, playing to more than 80,000 people. “Many of them never attend any other form of theatre.”

O’Donoghue, speaking at the ceremony in his honour, recalled that the campaign to have circus recognised as an important art form had been started in 1973 by the late Teddy Fossett, but had not been realised until just four years ago. He believes that the financial aid now being provided through the Arts Council and his department “will transform the future of circus in Ireland”.

Fossett’s, he said, had brought their own special brand of magic to the ordinary people of Ireland. “Long before the cinema was even invented, touring circus was one of the only forms of live entertainment available outside the main cities. Fossett’s has become synonymous with magical childhood memories.”

One problem still to be resolved, according to Robert Fossett, is that many traditional circus sites have been built on and are no longer available.

“Cork has become the first city in Ireland to have a dedicated site set aside for circuses,” he said, “and we believe every city and town should have such a site.”