Ewan is 18. He joined Cloughjordan Circus Club as a 10 year old in 2014 initially because his Mum said he had to do something! His first love is Diabolo and more recently he has become a confident stilt walker and is working on improving his unicycle and juggling. He first helped out with younger members on the outdoor summer camp programme during Covid and subsequently assisted at outreach taster workshops. Ewan completed school in summer 2022 and has been working with the youth circus and outreach programme as an assistant tutor as part of a year out before heading to college in Cork.

I definitely remember seeing a parade and thinking it was cool.

Mum made me go and I enjoyed it! There was a big mix of ages as we didn’t have 3 groups then. I liked the community and social aspect of it. Hanging out together while doing something and I enjoyed watching older members do all the skills more advanced than me.

It was fun and a fun part of the week. I liked when we had a show coming up.

Trip to Belfast was really fun, it gave me perspective on how the performance, the way its presented is so entertaining and almost bigger than the tricks, seeing them get the audience involved. Also Who Stole the Clowns and performing my Diabolo routine, when it dropped – getting the younger members to hand it back, made it a fun part of the whole thing rather than something to be upset about. It’s a good memory.

It was a summer camp when I was in 5th year, outdoors in the middle of Covid.

It’s cool to see kids having fun cause of what you are doing and that they are enjoying something because you are doing it with them. I like seeing the progress the younger ones make. I think they can see I was their age quite recently, and that I got my skills from circus club not away somewhere so they can see it’s possible for them too and not unattainable.

I’m going to Cork to study. I might look up Circus Factory in Cork. I met their tutors at the Youth Circus Gathering and said I would teach some Diabolo as they would like to get better at that. I’ll keep involved with Cloughjordan Circus Club where I can.

I have been getting more confident with different groups and learning to lead small groups and also figuring out what they need to know and how to make it fun and how to be flexible.