Tributes to actress Gerry McLoughlin, a heroine on and off stage

It is little wonder that the father of broadcaster and actress Gerry McLoughlin was a war hero. Gerry, who died early yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer, played many a heroine in her time, most of it on the stage of the Everyman Palace theatre in Cork.

Her father was Commander Frank Johnston, a highly decorated officer in the Royal Navy who was based in Malta before moving to Dublin after the Second World War and finally settling his family of seven girls in Cobh, Co Cork.

Gerry had been born in Dublin but her heart and soul were firmly in Cork where she enjoyed a long career as an actress, radio broadcaster and social diarist with the Evening Echo.