SNIPPET: The FOSSETT Circus has been entertaining families throughout Ireland for many, many years. The FOSSETTs trace their ancestry back to a man who, styling himself as "Dr. Powell", was part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Travelling throughout North America and Europe in the mid-19th century, the history books talk about him associating with Indians of the Arapaho tribe. Having fled Ireland during the Famine of the 1840s, "Dr. Powell" finally made his way back to Ireland before the turn of the century. A tall, swarthy man with a distinctly wild-west moustache, he looked like a gentleman gambler or gunslinger. His appearance in any small Irish town likely caused quite a stir - something the FOSSETT family has been doing ever since. The paterfamilias of the circus family, Teddy FOSSETT, died in 1998 when he was seventy, and although he had slowed down a bit, the ringmaster was never far from the front lines. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to "Dr. Powell," Teddy FOSSETT, was there to instruct and correct. Prior to his death he shared a caravan with his wife, Herta, a friendly petite woman in her mid-sixties with merry, "sapphire" eyes who was born in the former Czechoslovakia. She had travelled most of Europe before coming to Ireland in 1951. With her own family's circus connections going back generations, she made her first appearance at the age of three, placed in a basket of flowers and carried into the spotlight by an elephant. After she and Teddy FOSSETT married, she stopped performing on the high wire and trapeze and started training animals, as her father before her. Like everyone in a circus family, Herta had to pitch in wherever she was needed. She was the first woman in Ireland to get an HGV licence, which she needed for driving huge circus wagons around the country. Herta's lovely daughters, Angela and Marion FOSSETT added their graceful presence in the ring. Marion FOSSETT was not only a circus performer but a talented singer and she took on the ringmaster role from her father. In her shiny black boots and tight-fitting trousers, spangled top and tall hat, her glossy dark hair flowing down below her waist, Marion would move around the ring with the grace of a panther, while pretty sister Angela could be found working with the Asian camels. Photos of the FOSSETT family appeared in the April 1998 issue of "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine published in Dublin, and the circus may still be performing in Ireland.