Catherine 'Cat' Dowling, a Cat Dowling musician and Irish singer-songwriter, has died. Tributes moved quickly through the music community after Hot Press reported her death, with Niall Stokes and The Stunning among the first to respond.
Stokes said, "She was a lovely person, and a hugely original musician. She will be greatly missed," while The Stunning called her passing "another huge loss to Irish music". They also urged listeners to hear her work on streaming platforms, a prompt that effectively turns the reaction into a sales and discovery push for her catalogue.
Babelfish and Alphastates
Dowling first found recognition as the lead singer of Dublin group Babelfish, which she established in 2001 with Gerry Horan, Stevie Kavanagh and Graham Gilligan. Babelfish later evolved into Alphastates, the band that released Made from Sand in 2004 and Human Nature in 2009.
That arc matters because it shows how her name moved from local-band circulation into a longer recorded legacy. By the time Alphastates had put out two records, Dowling had already built the kind of profile that lets a singer become a reference point inside a small but durable scene.
The Believer and Animals
Her first solo record, The Believer, arrived in 2013, and its title track later featured in the second series of Banshee and the Witches of East End TV series. Her track Somebody Else was used in My Name is Emily, and she also contributed her voice to How To Get Away With Murder.
In 2021, she released Animals, produced by Gerry Horan, with Dowling listed as co-producer and Ger McDonnell handling the mix. The Stunning singled out that album as "superb" and added, "She opened for us in Kilkenny a few years back. her last album 'Animals' is superb. Rest in peace Catherine, you can play some tunes with Glen."
Richard Dowling and December 2017
Dowling was the daughter of former Fine Gael politician Richard Dowling, who served as a TD for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency from 1982 to 1987 and as a Senator for the Labour Panel from May to November 1982. She was also a mother-of-three.
She had spoken candidly about her breast cancer diagnosis from December 2017, a detail that now sits alongside the tributes rather than behind them. The reaction to her death reads as more than grief: it is also a reminder that Irish music has lost a voice whose work kept resurfacing across records, film, and television.
The immediate question is not about legacy but sequence — what was the cause and exact date of Cat Dowling's death? Until that is placed on the record, the story remains anchored to the same hard fact: a widely praised singer has died, and the people who knew her music are already moving to preserve it.
