Circus won’t be allowed to use football field

May 1985

Bray Councillors have banned the use of three local football pitches as a venue for circuses due to visit the town this holiday weekend.

They made their decision following strong objections from local sporting groups against the use of the pitches on 11 acres of council land at Irishtown in the town’s Ballywaltrim parish.

Instead, council officials were ordered to come up with an alternative site to accommodate the Easter visit to Bray by Duffy’s circus.

Council chairman Ciaran Murphy suggested that if nowhere else could be found, the circus could possibly be sited on training ground between the soccer pitches and a nearby GAA pitch.

He later suggested the GAA pitch itself could be used as a site as it was not played on as frequently as the soccer pitches.

But on Tuesday night there were indications that residents would resist even this suggestion and there were warnings that they would mount a human roadblock to stop the circus gaining access to the site.

The Ballywaltrim and District Recreational Development Association said in a letter that they felt the circus would damage the pitches and ruin all the work gone into them.