Clodagh Rodgers, 1947–2025: The Point’s Own Star

Warrenpoint said goodbye to one of its own this week. Clodagh Rodgers, born here on 5th March 1947, died peacefully on 18th April at her home in Cobham, Surrey, surrounded by her family. She was 78, and had faced a long illness with the same spirit she brought to everything.

For a generation, Clodagh was one of the most recognisable faces — and voices — on these islands. She signed her first record deal as a teenager, and by the turn of the 1970s was a fixture of British television. In 1971 she flew the flag at the Eurovision Song Contest with “Jack in the Box”, finishing fourth — and giving us a song that still gets a singalong going more than fifty years on.

Through all of it, she was a Point woman. It’s a long way from Church Street to the Eurovision stage, and she made the journey look easy.

Her son Sam said she passed “surrounded by her loving family”. Our thoughts are with them all. Sleep well, Clodagh — the town is proud of you.

Photo: Warrenpoint from across the lough, Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via geograph.org.uk.