Karin first decided to come to Ireland when she saw it from a plane window on her way to America. After six months in the USA, she came to Clare on a cycling trip and encountered a typical Irish welcome.

Karin knew she wanted to be a clown by the time she was 15 as, she says, "laughter makes everyone happy and can overcome any stress". Pipa the Clown has now been training for over 30 years and has settled in the West with the Galway Circus Project.

"As soon as I landed, people were saying hello. I came over on my own, so on my first night I went to a local pub where I bumped into a group of rugby players and ended up drinking with them until four in the morning. I decided pretty much then 'this is it'!"

Karin returned to America to tie up some loose ends before moving to Galway on a permanent basis. The city's cultural reputation and facilities persuaded her to head west and she has now lived here for ten years. One of the first things that she got involved with when she moved to Galway was Macnas and the Arts Festival. She worked with the group for five years before setting up her own show.

"Macnas were very good; they helped me out a lot at the beginning. To run your own show, you need to know a lot about set making, props and all that and I got a great chance to learn all those skills with Macnas," she says.

She decided to channel her energies into the Galway Circus Project and Sorcas Beag, a youth community circus established in 2003 where children are trained in traditional circus skills such as juggling and clowning. Karin possesses a very optimistic outlook and lives by the motto 'you only have one life so don't mess it up, use it'. She is a firm believer that you can be a kid for as long as choose and that children should be encouraged to play. She describes her line of work not as a job but as a passion, and says that she is nowhere near the end of her development as a clown and performer.

"I am very proud of the way Sorcas Beag has developed and the way the students have come on, and I feel now like I could step away from Sorcas Beag and let it run itself. That is something I am trying to do because I still haven't reached where I want to reach as a clown. I am currently passing my final degree in clowning after 30 years and I hope to do my own show maybe next year. I have already made some progress on it and it will be about the struggles that women face in their lives. Certainly the world of clowning is very male-orientated and you can face a lot of obstacles, so I would like to express that in this piece."