Shane MacGowan dead: The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York icon dies aged 65 after eight-year health battle

THE Pogues star Shane MacGowan has died at the age of 65 after an eight-year health battle.

The Fairytale of New York singer, who had been diagnosed with viral encephalitis – a serious condition which leads to brain swelling – passed away at 3am this morning.

Hellraiser Shane, whose 1987 Fairytale of New York became a Christmas anthem and sold millions of copies worldwide, became as famous for his hard-partying lifestyle as he was for his legendary singing and songwriting in his 1980s heyday.

In recent years, the icon was confined to a wheelchair and was aided by his wife and carer at home due to ongoing health issues.

Shane had been receiving care in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for an infection but was discharged last week ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day.

Shane’s wife Victoria today shared a heartbreaking statement announcing his death.

She shared a throwback black and white snap of her beloved husband of five years and shared her shock at the loss of “the love of my life” and “beautiful angel”.

Victoria paid a touching tribute to Shane, who was “the start and end of everything that I hold dear”.

She said: “I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it.

“Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.

“I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.”

Victoria thanked Shane for the time they spent together and the “joy” he brought to the rest of world.

Shane wed his long term love Victoria at an intimate ceremony in Denmark in 2018, after he finally proposed following 32 years of dating.

The pair celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary after Shane was released from hospital last week.

Victoria added: “There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you for your presence in this world you made it so very bright and you gave so much joy to so many people with your heart and soul and your music.

“You will live in my heart forever.

“Rave on in the garden all wet with rain that you loved so much.

“You meant the world to me.”

It comes as..

• Shane’s loving wife paid tribute to her ‘beautiful angel’
• The rock wildman defied critics who said he had ‘death wish’
• Fans have shared their heartbreak for the loss of the Irish frontman
• Last ever pic of the Pogues icon revealed

Shane is survived by his wife Victoria, his sister Siobhan and father Maurice.

Sharing a statement online, the family told of their deep sorrow and heartbreak at the loss of the beloved singer.

They said: “It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of Shane MacGowan.

“Shane died peacefully at 3am this morning (30 November 2023) with his wife Victoria and family by his side.

“Prayers and the last rites were read which gave comfort to his family.

“He is survived by his wife Victoria, his sister Siobhan, his father, Maurice, family and a large circle of friends.

“Further details will be announced shortly but the family ask for privacy at this very sad time”.

In a sweet tribute of her own, Siobhan shared a snap with her beaming brother and said: “So I walked as day was dawning; as small birds sang and leaves were falling, where we once watched the row boats landing on the Broad Majestic Shannon”.

WORLDWIDE HEARTACHE

As fans shared their devastation, paying tribute to “a true legend”, President Michael D Higgins remembered Shane’s “genius” and talent.

President Higgins said: “Like so many across the world, it was with the greatest sadness that I learned this morning of the death of Shane MacGowan.

“Shane will be remembered as one of music’s greatest lyricists. So many of his songs would be perfectly crafted poems, if that would not have deprived us of the opportunity to hear him sing them.

“The genius of Shane’s contribution includes the fact that his songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams – of so many worlds, and particularly those of love, of the emigrant experience and of facing the challenges of that experience with authenticity and courage, and of living and seeing the sides of life that so many turn away from.

“His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways.”

Shane’s mother, Therese, was also a singer and was an inspiration in the Pogue star’s life and music career.

President Higgins continued: “Shane’s talent was nurtured from a young age by his mother Therese, herself an award winning folk singer in her own right.

“Therese, who lost her life in such tragic circumstances on New Year’s Day 2017, inspired in Shane the love of Irish music and traditions which resulted in the wonderful music and lyrics which have been a source of such joy for so many people.

“Born on Christmas Day, there was perhaps some form of destiny which led Shane to writing ‘Fairytale of New York’, the timeless quality of which will surely mean that it will be listened to every Christmas for the next century or more.

“Likewise songs like ‘Rainy Night in Soho’, ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’, ‘If I Should Fall from Grace with God’ and so many others will live on far into the years and decades to come.

“I think too of ‘Haunted’, and the particular poignancy that both Shane and Sinead O’Connor have left us in such quick succession.”

One of Shane’s last public appearances was in 2018 at a special 60th birthday celebration at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Celebrities and Shane’s close pals such as Johnny Depp, Bono, Sinead O’Connor and Cerys Matthews performed his songs while President Higgins presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

President Higgins described the presentation as “a great honour for me. A richly deserved honour.”

He added: “On behalf of Sabina and I, may I extend my deepest condolences to Shane’s wife Victoria, his sister Siobhan, his father Maurice, his bandmates in the Pogues and other projects, and to all his many friends and family.”

Shane’s bandmate Peter “Spider” Stacy paid tribute to his fellow Pogues co-founder, sharing an image of him performing on a stage.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Stacy wrote: “‘O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done..'”

RISE OF THE POGUES

Shane was born on Christmas Day in Pembury, Kent, in 1957 to Irish parents – his father worked in retail and his mother was an Irish dancer.

He soon moved to rural Tipperary where he was immersed in an Irish culture of ceili bands and showbands before the family moved back to England.

Shane was expelled from a prestigious Westminster School in London in his second year when he was caught in possession of drugs.

He later claimed he had not been sober a single day in his life since he was 14.

In 2001, Sinead O’Connor reported him to the police for drug possession – in what she said was an attempt to discourage him from using heroin.

The star had always been open about his battle with drug addiction and alcohol abuse, which led him to lose all his teeth by 2008.

Seven years after Shane lost the last of his teeth, he underwent a nine-hour procedure to fit 28 glowing dentures on a titanium frame and a gold tooth.

Shane’s expulsion led the star to become involved in punk bands and form his own, before the birth of The Pogues in 1982.

Shane on vocals, Peter “Spider” Tracy on tin whistle, and Jem Finer on banjo were the original members.

James Fearnley, the accordion player for the Nips, Andrew Ranken on drums, and Cait O’Riordan on bass completed the lineup.

The band’s initial name, Pogue Mahone, was an anglicization of the phrase “kiss my arse,” póg mo thóin.

The band played traditional Irish and rebel songs and later performed songs with great depth, thanks to the songwriting talents of MacGowan.

The band reached their critical peak with the 1985 album Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, and their commercial peak with 1988’s If I Should Fall from Grace with God.

The latter provided the band with their biggest hit, MacGowan duetting with Kirsty MacColl on Fairytale of New York. Although it was kept off the coveted festive number one spot by The Pet Shop Boys, Fairytale regularly tops polls for the best Christmas song.

However, the band kicked MacGowan out in 1991 after his erratic lifestyle and excessive drinking began to affect his creative output.

The rock wildman time and time again defied critics who said he had ‘death wish’.

The Tipperary rocker once told the Irish Sun: “All the people who used to say that I had a death wish and that I wouldn’t see 30 — where are they now? If I had a death wish, I’d be dead.”

Shane formed his own band, The Popes, and toured extensively, but was back with The Pogues in 2001.

‘BONES TURNED TO DUST’

In September 2020, a new documentary, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, was released Directed by Julien Temple and produced by Johnny Depp.

It featured unseen archival footage from the band and MacGowan’s family, as well as animation from illustrator Ralph Steadman.

In 2021, it was revealed by Mick Cronin of Irish rock indie band Cronin that MacGowan had recorded with them in May.

“Once he’s in the studio, he’s all guns blazing,” the drummer told the New York Times.

In November 2022, MacGowan released his first art book.

The book, titled The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold, included never-before-seen artwork, handwritten lyrics and school essays.

Over the last eight years, Shane battled health issues and eventually needed help getting out of bed.

The rocker’s mobility was dramatically reduced after a 2015 fall, which left him with a broken pelvis. 

At the time, Shane told Vice that he “fell the wrong way”, which left him “lame in one leg” and unable to walk without a crutch. 

The singer was forced to use a wheelchair in the years that followed and last year, his injuries worsened after he fell and broke his knee shortly after tearing a ligament.

He said at the time: “You find out your bones are turned to dust”.

But despite his lifestyle, Shane regularly said he was “glad to be alive” and “grateful to wake up”, said wife Victoria.

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