08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Formula One legends join star-studded memorial service for Eddie Jordan in London
Jordan died at the age of 76 in March in Cape Town in South Africa after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate and bladder cancer
Rick Astley and Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford were among the stars who joined several Formula One legends at Eddie Jordan's memorial service in London yesterday.
Current and former racers such as Eddie Irvine, Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinen, Martin Donnelly, David Coulthard, Martin Brundle, Christian Horner and Johnny Herbert joined hundreds who packed into Westminster Central Hall to pay tribute to the Dubliner.
Jordan died at the age of 76 in March in Cape Town in South Africa after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate and bladder cancer.
No funeral details were announced for the father-of-four, from Dartry in south Dublin.
But his widow Marie attended yesterday's ceremony, at which his daughter Zoe recited A E Housman's poem To an Athlete Dying Young.
'The time you won your town the race,' she read.
Celebrating the life of Eddie Jordan
'We chaired you through the marketplace, Man and boy stood cheering by, and home we brought you shoulder high.
'Today, the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town.'
She ended: 'Now you will not swell the rout. Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran, And the name died before the man.'
Eddie was once a racing car driver himself and went on to found Jordan Gran Prix, winning four Formula One races and employing Eddie Irvine, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.
Video clips of his life and his achievements were shown on a big screen and at the service's end his old Silverstone band Eddie and the Robbers.
They were joined on stage by Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford and singer Rick Astley, with performers from Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance getting a string of F1 drivers and the 1000 or so audience singing and clapping along to The Beatles' Hey Jude
"Yesterday we had a chance to celebrate the life of the late Great Eddie Jordan," Hill wrote on X.
"And what a life he lived. Awesome. He's not coming back, but he will never leave us. Tanks EJ."
A series or tributes were also paid to Jordan at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend, which was attended by among others Heinz Harald Frentzen and Johnny Herbert, Damon Hill and Eddie Irvine.
The four of them took to the stage for a special musical tribute to him, with Irvine on percussion and Hill playing guitar.
The star-studded memorial for Eddie Jordan in London
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 8th
