My Life with Claire Keaty: When I became pregnant we set up a circus to support our family

Claire Keaty of the Wobbly Circus says her partner hitchhiked to Cork hoping to meet her again after a chance encounter — and spotted her from the car as she walked down the road

Stilt walker Claire Keaty of the Wobbly Circus. Picture: David Creedon

With a three-foot-high tightrope and miniature performance ring, my fiancé and I might just own the tiniest circus in Ireland.

Luckily, it’s still going strong more than two decades later. I was 24 when I fell pregnant with our oldest daughter Millie and we needed to find a means to support our family. The thought of conforming to a “nine to five” existence motivated us to set up our circus with a difference.

Paul and I have always been a double act, both in life and in the ring. We have on occasion hired supporting performers, but it is, for the most part, just the two of us. The Wobbly Circus had been our dream for as long as we can remember. All these years later, as proud parents to Millie (24), Aaron (21) and Misha (15), we find that much of our juggling is done outside of the ring. Usually, it’s the parents clearing up after the kids, but our home was the opposite.

The house was always a riot of colour with costumes and circus props strewn across the sitting room. I’m not sure how they put up with us at times. While Paul and I settled down and started a family just over two decades ago, our love story dates back a lot further. They say that you can’t buy happiness, but you can marry a clown and that’s kind of the same thing.

Although Paul and I haven’t got around to tying the knot yet, I definitely believe this rings true. It was 1997 when I first met him at a house party in West Cork. I was performing with a fire staff, which is a cylindrical object with Kevlar wicks attached to both ends. I hadn’t been performing circus professionally at that stage.

Claire Keaty from the Wobbly Circus entertaining children at an event.

This was really just a party trick which I had learned from a friend. Meanwhile, Paul was demonstrating the fire wheel. He had travelled around the UK with a group of jugglers called Cosmos and even performed at Glastonbury. We got chatting, but I think Paul was oblivious to how much I liked him. Both of us went our separate ways until, six months later, he found me hitchhiking close to Limerick Junction. Paul pulled up in his van which he had been living in at the time as he travelled around Ireland with another group of jugglers. He drove me to Tipperary town where I was staying with my parents. After dropping me off he found it difficult to think about anyone else.

Mobile phones weren’t a thing at the time and he didn’t have my address. All he knew was that I was living in Cork. When he was unable to find my details, he decided to travel there in what was the most wonderful twist of fate you could possibly imagine. He hitchhiked his way to Cork in the hope that he might find me.

The driver thought he had lost his mind, travelling all this way to find a girl he knew nothing about. That was until he uttered those awe-inspiring words “Stop the car, I think I’ve found her.” I was ambling down the road, minding my own business. The way he found me was quite fitting. He stumbled on me just like a circus clown. 

From that day on, we were inseparable. We travelled to France with friends, where we busked around the towns there doing circus performances. I’m a gypsy at heart so I’ve always loved moving around.

Claire Keaty from the Wobbly Circus stilt walking. She started the circus with her husband Paul as a means to support their family. Picture: Chani Anderson

A few years later when I was home and pregnant with Millie we decided to set up the Wobbly Circus where we performed in festivals, schools and events across the country. We got some help from friends along the way. 

I asked a friend of ours named Bill Faulkner if he could make me a pair of stilts to perform with. He was a boat builder and the nicest man you could ever meet. He fashioned the most incredible pair of stilts for me using some wood. I trained myself to walk in them and the older generation in particular adored the act. People in their seventies and eighties said their fathers had built them stilts when they were children, so I reminded them of their childhoods.

In terms of setting up the circus, what I’m most grateful for is the encouragement we received from friends and family. Circus isn’t something that runs through my blood.

My mother worked in a boutique, and my father drove a JCB. However, it was the stability they provided that afforded me the creative freedom to be who I am today.

Of course, there are difficult days. Being an artist is tough because it’s always a feast or a famine. I sometimes wonder if I should have worked harder in school.

There are times when I ask myself whether it might be easier to have an ordinary job, but I know in my heart that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.

Ever since I was a child I’ve wanted to run away with the circus. I’m just glad I got to do it with the person I love.