Sorry to learn of Judith Mok’s death last month. From The Hot Press Newsdesk – 28th November 2024
“Judith was a remarkable woman, a force of life, a powerhouse, with incredible life experience,” a statement from the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris reads.
Tributes are continuing to pour in for Judith Mok, following the sad news of the acclaimed classical singer, vocal coach and writer’s death this week.
Her passing was confirmed by her publisher, Antony Farrell of Lilliput Press, who stated in an online post that Judith “died on the morning of Monday 26th with her husband, writer Michael O’Loughlin, keeping vigil.”
“She was a doughty soul and personality, who bore her cancer fearlessly,” his statement continues.
(Sephardic song Addio Querido performed by Judith Mok and Mani Koshravesh in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Filmed by Oisin Byrne, 2020. From Judith Mok’s website).
‘I’D never quite met anyone like Judith before, and I found out afterwards, of course, that there was nobody like her,” says writer and poet Michael O’Loughlin. “We started talking on the first night we met, and we’re having that same conversation 29 years later. We find that we still argue about the same things!”
(from the Irish Independent, September 2011)
As a footnote, I was fortunate enough ten years ago to be introduced to Michael O’Loughlin at a Dedalus Press launch in Dublin. In retrospect, I wish I’d known more about his poetry at the time, might have enquired about his career as ‘one of the few genuine, intellectual, working-class voices in Irish poetry’ (Poetry International). ‘Pleasure to meet you,’ I said, ‘I thought you played a great game against Collingwood last weekend.’ (Where’d that spring from? Regretted the words immediately.) Quick as a flash he shot back, very generously, with ‘Yes, I was quite pleased with my performance myself.’