Singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan remembered as iconic and beloved musician
President Michael D Higgins has led tributes to Shane MacGowan, saying his songs seemed to capture “the measure of our dreams”.
MacGowan’s death at 65 comes after a prolonged period of ill health, including time spent in intensive care. He was best known as the frontman of The Pogues, whose single Fairytale of New York has become a popular Christmas song across Ireland and the UK.
In a statement, Mr Higgins said MacGowan would be remembered “as one of music’s greatest lyricists”.
“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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
Fairytale of New York, MacGowan’s best-known song, had a “timeless quality” that would likely see it continue to be listened to every Christmas “for the next century or more”, Mr Higgins said.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said MacGowan was an “amazing” musician and artist. “His songs beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad,” he said.
Speaking in the Dáil, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said MacGowan was “an iconic musician who blended many different musical disciplines and genres”.
Mr Martin said his death was “particularly poignant” at this time of year in the context of Fairytale of New York, one of the most “enduring” Christmas songs and “resonates with all of us and continues to do so”.
The singer was born Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan on December 25th, 1957, in Pembury, Kent to Irish parents. His father was from Dublin and his mother from Co Tipperary, where he spent many summers in his youth.
His wife Victoria Mary Clarke posted on Instagram that the “love of her life and “measure of her dreams” had died. The pair had married in 2018, having been together for 32 years and engaged for 11 years.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said Ireland had “lost one of its most beloved icons”.
“Nobody told the Irish story like Shane – stories of emigration, heartache, dislocation, redemption, love and joy,” she said.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty said MacGowan was a “musical icon”, who would be remembered “as one of the greatest songwriters of his generation”.
Siobhán McSweeney, the Irish actor who played Sister Michael in Derry Girls, said MacGowan “was the voice of London for us Irish”.
“When I was scared about moving here he lured me over with songs about chancers, drinkers, lovers, poets and scoundrels … He also taught me how to miss Home, whatever that may be,” she said.
Source: Tributes pour in for The Pogues frontman: ‘Nobody told the Irish story like Shane’