‘Eddie was never afraid of anything or anyone – it made him quite dangerous’

Kieran Jackson speaks to Marie Jordan about her husband Eddie, the late, great F1 team owner and commentator, and the fearless core principles that form the basis of a new book

- Kieran Jackson

It was more a way of life than a motto. So much so that the acronym “FTB” was tattooed on Eddie Jordan’s right wrist and that of his four children; a reminder to continually embody the phrase, which, according to the website Irish Hidden Treasures, epitomises “defiance and resilience”, and a refusal to let “negativity” dampen one’s ambitions.

It feels an appropriately inappropriate way to begin talking about Jordan, the late, great rock’n’roll Formula One team owner and pundit, who passed away in March at the age of 76. “Excuse my language so early on,” I say. “But it was obviously the key phrase of his life: Feck the Begrudgers.”

Marie Jordan, his wife, whom he married in 1979, is quick to chime in: “You can believe I’m well used to that,” she chuckles. “Don’t even hesitate the next time you want to say it!” Ice is well and truly broken.

Undoubtedly, “FTB” was a core ethos of the man known to his friends and colleagues as “EJ”, the much-loved Irishman who touched every corner of the F1 paddock over 30 years. The outpouring of emotion and tributes at his sad passing earlier this year, after a yearlong battle with bladder and prostate cancer, highlighted not just his accolades but the wider impact of his omnipresent style of uproarious shrewdness in a mishmash of business and sport.

“You don’t change your spots,” Marie says of the man she met, via an ex-boyfriend, at a disco in Dublin. Even back in the mid-1970s, “FTB” was instilled deep inside. “You also know from seeing him on television that he didn’t hold back.