THE BALLOON MAN

Welcome to Tom Duffy's, Ireland's premier Circus.

from: Tom Duffy's Website

Over the past three centuries Duffy's Circus has been amazing audiences throughout Ireland. Patrick James Duffy, a shoemaker from Dublin, developed a love for foreign circuses visiting Ireland. After learning various circus skills he became a famous acrobat and his son John started his own circus, the John Duffy Circus. John had three sons - John, Tom and James. It was from James that Duffy's Circus developed into what it is today. By the 1870s the Duffy family had an extremely large circus with upward of 250 horses.

Throughout the years the circus has had many names with the changing of generations, The Duffy Family Circus and Duffy's National Circus amongst others but has always been proud to use Duffy name. In 1917 James operated a circus with his sister, The Duffy and McClean's Circus for a few years before James Duffy & Sons Circus was born. James died in 1959 and the circus continued to be operated by his wife Lena and sons Jimmy, Johnny, Billy, Tom, Arthur, Freddy and Albert and daughter Lena. In 1971 Lena died and the circus was carried on by her sons as the Duffy Brother's Circus. 

By 1979 another generation of Duffy's had been groomed for the ring, as the family was extremely large Tom and son David decided to branch out with their own circus. In 1982 the Duffy Brother's Circus ceased and Tom Duffy's Circus has been carrying on the Duffy name ever since. Over the last 33 years Tom Duffy's Circus has grown into one of Europe's finest and most respected circuses, in recognition our Circus is supported and funded by The Arts Council.

The present day sees Tom Duffy’s as a traditional Circus with a modern twist. Three generations of the Duffy family are now on tour with the Circus Tom, now 83, his son David and Grandsons Tom and Jamie. Despite predictions that Circus would lose popularity with the introduction of television, video games and the internet Tom Duffy’s Circus is more popular than ever with more than 160,000 people visiting a performance of Tom Duffy’s Circus in 2011.