{"id":588266,"date":"2026-08-09T20:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588266\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T20:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:46:11","slug":"singer-songwriter-cat-dowling-dies-aged-54-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588266\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer-songwriter Cat Dowling dies aged 54 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The singer and songwriter Catherine \u201cCat\u201d Dowling has died aged 54, her family has announced. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Known to have been suffering from a long-term illness, as recently as March last year she released a version of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-pogues\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-pogues\/\">The Pogues<\/a>\u2019 A Rainy Night in Soho. The recording became the soundtrack for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-foreign-affairs\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-foreign-affairs\/\">Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a>\u2019 St Patrick\u2019s Day campaign. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She initially came to prominence with Babelfish which went on to become Alphastates, which she also fronted. Their debut album Made From Sand was released in 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In January, Dowling took part in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\">Dublin<\/a> launch of Rock Against Homelessness in aid of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/focus-ireland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/focus-ireland\/\">Focus Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She was born in Ferrybank, Co <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/kilkenny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/kilkenny\/\">Kilkenny<\/a>, but raised in Cabra, Dublin. Dowling was the daughter of the late Fine Gael county councillor and TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, Dick Dowling. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She leaves behind three children, Rachel, \u00d3dhran and Juliette, their father Brian, her much-loved mother M\u00e1ir\u00edn, a sister and four brothers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fellow musician Jerry Fish described Dowling as \u201ca warrior for love\u201d and \u201ca gentle soul, humble and generous to a fault\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Stunning said they were \u201cso saddened\u201d by her death, describing Dowling as \u201ca true original\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Whelan\u2019s music venue said it had been \u201chonoured\u201d to have Dowling perform there over the years, both with Alphastates and as a solo artist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said Dowling was \u201ca wonderful singer and frontwoman\u201d and \u201ca hugely original musician\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dowling will be reposed in Power\u2019s Funeral Home, Ferrybank, on Tuesday, August 11th, from 2.30pm, followed by removal at 6pm to The Sacred Heart Church, Ferrybank. A requiem mass will take place on Wednesday, August 12th, at 1pm, after which Dowling will be laid to rest in Glenmore Cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The singer and songwriter Catherine \u201cCat\u201d Dowling has died aged 54, her family has announced. Known to have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1844,615,93,61,60,12969,86953],"class_list":["post-588266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-dublin","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kilkenny","tag-the-pogues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}