Dr Richard “Dickey” Hunter: Ringmaster of Belfast’s Christmas Circus
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written J.P. Browne
Richard "Dickey" Henry Hunter (1886–1970) is best remembered in Belfast not for his distinguished medical career but for creating and sustaining a beloved Christmas circus tradition in the city during the 1940s and 1950s. Born in British Guiana and educated in Ulster, Hunter later pursued anatomy and embryology at Queen's University Belfast before becoming one of Northern Ireland’s most colourful cultural figures (Andrews, 2024).
Though Hunter achieved notable academic distinction, editing the Ulster Medical Journal from 1932 to 1942 (Hadden, 2006), it was his circus work that captured the public imagination. A passionate lover of animals and performance, Hunter served as Curator of the Belfast Zoo and famously entered a lioness cage to demonstrate animal training without cruelty, delighting local audiences and building his reputation as a charismatic showman.
Apparently, Hunter’s transformation into circus impresario was deliberate and enthusiastic. After meeting members of the famed Chipperfield circus family in England, he considered a professional ringmaster career, before ultimately deciding to build something of his own in Belfast.
The First Belfast Circus: Hippodrome, 1940
On the 25th December 1940, Hunter presented his first circus at the Belfast Hippodrome in partnership with theatre proprietor G.L. Birch. This “Continental Circus” was an immediate success and marked the beginning of an annual Christmas tradition that resonated deeply with wartime and post-war audiences.
Hunter and Birch planned repeat Christmas shows, with Hunter collaborating on another Hippodrome season despite wartime hardships, including damage to his home during the Belfast Blitz.
Hunter’s circus was not a simple variety show but a theatrical production. Posters and programmes housed in the British National Fairground and Circus Archive testify to elaborate Hippodrome circus bills, featuring lion acts, ponies, acrobats, jugglers, equestrian performers, novelty animals, clowning troupes, and circus bands.
Photograph’s from his own personal archive shows Hunter in top hat and scarlet coat as ringmaster, presenting a blend of European acts that drew audiences across social classes. The inclusion of Continental performers such as Danish trampolinists to multiple animal acts showed off Hunter’s international recruitment efforts each summer in anticipation of the Christmas season.
After the final Hippodrome Christmas show in 1950–51, the venue was converted to cinema use, and Hunter shifted his circus to the Empire Theatre. Here, his Christmas Circus ran through the 1950s, continuing to attract audiences with performances drawn from across Britain and Europe (Findlater, 2013).
Accounts from the Empire era describe Hunter and his performers entertaining hospitals and civic institutions, bringing circus spectacle such as trained animals and acrobatics to communities beyond the Hippodrome stage such as in December 1953 when six hundred youngsters, including two hundred orthopoedic patients from the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, the Ulster, City and Musgrave Park Hospitals were entertained. The bill in 1954 included, as well as eight clowns, performing sea lions, dogs and horses and many ‘serious’ acts as well as a wire-walking act in which comedy was heavily underlined (Findlater, 2013).
Though his earlier medical and academic career was noteworthy, it is Hunter’s cultural legacy that endures in public memory. For two decades, he brought continental circus artistry to Belfast at a time when international travel and performances were rare. His annual Christmas circus became a cherished institution being a hybrid of theatre, spectacle, and community celebration. The Christmas Circus was revived in the 1960's by Victor O'Mara with William Barry as the Managing Director with Dr. Hunter's name featuring prominently on the front page of the programmes.
Reference list
Andrews, H. (2024). Hunter, Richard (‘Dicky’) Henry. [online] Dictionary of Irish Biography. Available at: https://www.dib.ie/biography/hunter-richard-dicky-henry-a4164 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2026].
Castledawson Review (2023). Dr. Richard Hunter. [online] Facebook.com. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/castledawsonreview/posts/born-in-british-guyana-moved-to-portglenone-educated-ballymena-queens-university/560699102885424/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2026].
Findlater, A. (2013). Findlaters - Chapter 14 - The Empire Theatre of Varieties, Belfast. [online] Findlaters.com. Available at: http://www.findlaters.com/chapter14.html#C14-6 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2026].
Hadden, D.R. (2006). The Editors of the Ulster Medical Journal. The Ulster Medical Journal, [online] 75(1), p.5. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1891800/?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2026].
McMinn, R. (1988). Belfast Hippodrome Highlights 1944-51. King Pole Magazine, (Winter), Dec., pp.12–13.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (n.d.). Hunter Papers - Circus Posters and Photographs. [online] Flickr. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/proni/albums/72157701578762225/?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2026].
Queen's University Belfast (2026). Richard Henry Hunter (1885–1970) | Art UK. [online] Artuk.org. Available at: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/richard-henry-hunter-18851970-168965 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2026].