My Weekend: I teach youths aerial, walking globe, juggling and more circus skills!

The Rebel Circus Ensemble, Circus Factory’s newest crew, will make their street debut at the Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade demonstrating a variety of circus skills from hullahoop, staff to flag and acrobatics. Here Haj Murphy of the Circus Factory tells us how he likes to spend his weekends

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work:

My name is Haj and I work as a Youth Coach at the Circus Factory Cork. I was born and raised in Cork and joined Circus Factory in 2014.

Originally I got involved in Circus by dropping in to open sessions to jump around on a crash mat but eventually got more involved in the community cabarets and in 2018 began teaching adults.

Nine years later I now find myself leading nearly half of the classes that go on here from handstands, acrobatics, object manipulation to Chinese pole and balance.

I often joke I’m a ‘professional messer’ as my job is so fun and I get to teach such a variety of skills to people from all over and all ages.

Currently I am working with our teen class in preparation for the Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

I prefer to spend a Friday night with my feet up at home, as I work on Saturday’s teaching all of our in-house youth classes.

Lie ins or up with the lark ... which is it for you?

I definitely prefer lie ins to recover from all of the physical teaching and training.

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

Always — on Saturday’s I teach three different youth classes that we run from ages seven-plus in Circus Factory opposite the Marina.

We teach lots of different skills like aerial, walking globe, juggling and whatever the kids are interested in really.

On Sunday’s I usually join the Open sessions for our members to do a bit of my own training.

If money was no object where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

If I was to go on a weekend city break, I would go to Galway. They have a thriving Circus community and I really enjoyed going up there last year.If I could, I would bring my dog Tiva with me.

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

I was recently teaching an outreach session in Kinsale and was reminded of how lovely the coastal walk there from Charles’ Fort is.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

Usually, I prefer to chill out and have some alone time.

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

This is a hard question to answer as my hobby has become my career. I have spent many years trying to work out what I enjoy and, really, acrobatics and training different circus skills is now a big part of my life.

We have so many places to eat out in Cork — where are your go-to spots for coffee/ lunch/ special meal?

On weekends I tend to go to Sicilian Delights at the Marina Market. Their coffee is fantastic, food is always yummy and everyone is super friendly. It’s reasonably priced too.

Sunday night comes around too fast.. how do you normally spend it?

Sunday night I usually end up playing video games like Apex Legends.

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

Monday is my day off — so I don’t have an alarm clock for i!

Taking part in St Patrick’s Day

The Rebel Circus Ensemble, Circus Factory’s newest crew, will make their street debut at the Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade demonstrating a variety of circus skills from hullahoop, staff to flag and acrobatics.

The Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on Friday, March 17, at 1pm, on the familiar route from South Mall to Merchants Quay.

The 2023 Festival will see Cork’s largest parade ever.

The feast of colour and pageantry will feature more than 3,500 participants in 55 groups, to a theme of “A Century of Stories”.

• See www.corkstpatricksfestival.ie