Marion Fossett, famed ringmistress of Fossett’s Circus, dies aged 71

Marion Fossett of Fossett's Circus in the Ring with Florian the Juggler at Mahon Point Cork. File picture: Des Barry

Ringmistress Marion Fossett, who became the public face of Ireland's oldest circus family, has died.

The 71-year-old’s death marks the passing of one of the best-known figures in Irish circus life, a performer whose career spanned more than six decades and whose name became synonymous with Fossett's Circus, one of the oldest continuously touring circuses in the world.