A CURIOUS collection of more than 600 miniature clowns will be in the spotlight at Dunmanway’s Atkins Hall in August.

The display is making a stop at the Main Street community hall—a fitting place just a stone’s throw away from where John Duffy’s Circus had its winter base from the late 1930s until the early ‘60s.

The collection was owned by Rainbow The Clown, aka Jimmy Noonan, who performed with the next generation of Duffy’s Circus for many years before his death in 2023.

John Atkins, who bought the clowns at auction in Carrigtwohill with his family, said he was ‘very proud’ to be showing it in Dunmanway. ‘It’s quite unexpected the way it turned out but it worked out well and we are happy to soon be opening the collection to the public.’

He added: ‘Before the advent of television and cinemas in the 1950s and 1960s the circus was an enormous social thing. In addition to all the number of horses and animals, there was a lot of interaction between the circus folk and people in Dunmanway.’

As a result, the town has seen its fair share of funny circus incidents, now part of its collective memory: elephants drinking from Chapel Lake, monkeys escaping and making their way through the town centre, or the sounds of animals echoing through the area on stormy nights.

One anecdote about the Duffy family buying expensive boxes of chocolate for their visits to the Broadway Cinema has also become local lore.

Locals still remember that the tasty treats were often left behind for whoever was cleaning the cinema after the film had finished.

The Duffy family was known for its generosity and has been a circus dynasty since the 18th century, now buried in the churchyard at St Patrick’s Church.

When not based in the town, the circus, dubbed the Irish Barnum & Bailey, toured the country with a troupe of international circus artists from France, Italy, Czech Republic and many other countries.

An old programme lists hurricane hurdle act Miss Lilian, balancing and juggling act Squibs, alongside Danish trapeze artists Maggi and Marc, Mrs Mulligan the Pride of Macroom and a group of performing bears.
One of the main attractions were elephants Salt and Pepper who are commemorated next to circus owner John Duffy in a special wall mural created for the Atkins Hall display.

‘The collection will be open to the public one Saturday in August with a nominal fee at the door, which will all go to a local charity,’ said local historian Michelle O’Mahony whose dad had childhood friends who were in the circus.

The exhibition also features vintage circus posters and artwork, old photos, circus programmes, masks, snow globes, music boxes and clown-themed tea cups.

For more information visit https://storiesonthestreet.ie/dunmanway/plaque-5