‘You will live in my heart forever. You meant the world to me’: Shane MacGowan’s wife pays emotional tribute to Pogues rocker after his death aged 65 and says he’s ‘gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother’
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The heartbroken wife of Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan has paid emotional tribute to the Irish hellraiser following his death, saying he will ‘live forever in my heart’.
The legendary rocker, who was behind the beloved Christmas anthem Fairytale of New York, died ‘peacefully’ at 3am today, aged 65, with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke and family by his side.
Announcing the news of the beloved punk star’s death, Victoria wrote she had been ‘blessed beyond words’ to have been ‘so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him’ and declared: ‘You will live in my heart forever… you meant the world to me.’
She added: ‘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.’
The singer was battling viral encephalitis – a life-threatening condition that leads to brain swelling – and had been in and out of Dublin’s St Vincent’s Hospital for months. He was discharged last week ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day.
Hellraiser Shane, whose 1987 Fairytale of New York became a Christmas classic selling millions of copies worldwide, was famous for his hard-partying lifestyle slurred speech, missing teeth and on-stage meltdowns during his 1980s heyday.
In recent years, the Irish icon was confined to a wheelchair and was aided by his wife and carer at home, having been plagued by by ill-health linked to his years of alcohol and substance abuse.
- News of Shane’s death comes as tributes poured in from across the globe
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- Read the tragic story of how Kirsty MacColl – who sang on Fairytale of New York – was killed in speedboat accident days before Christmas
Tributes have poured in from across the globe to honour the Irish music legend
The legendary musician, who was behind the Christmas anthem Fairytale of New York, died ‘peacefully’ at 3am today, wife Victoria Mary Clarke (pictured left) and family by his side
Shane MacGowan with his mother Therese MacGowan (centre) and sister Siobhan MacGowan
It came days after MacGowan returned home after being released from hospital amid a battle with a brain condition, with his wife Victoria sharing a photo of him in his hospital bed
Born in Kent to Irish parents on Christmas Day 1957, MacGowan in his autobiography described early childhood summers spent at an Irish farmhouse with his family, drinking, smoking and singing traditional songs.
‘It was like living in a pub,’ he told the Guardian in 2013.
After winning a scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School in London, MacGowan struggled to fit in and was expelled two years later for drug use and started hanging out in London bars with other musicians.
At 17, his alcohol and drug abuse helped trigger a mental breakdown and he was kept in a psychiatric hospital for six months.
After recovering, he embraced the eruption of punk in London in the late 1970s and early 80s.
He brought Irish traditional music to a huge new audience in the late 1980s by splicing it with punk, and achieved mainstream success with his bittersweet, expletive-strewn 1987 Christmas anthem with the Pogues.
In a statement shared on behalf of his wife, Victoria, Shane’s sister Siobhan and father, Maurice, The Pogues’ official Instagram page said the music legend ‘died peacefully’.
MacGowan’s bandmate, Spider Stacy, was among the famous faces leading tributes to the star, as fans and world Irish leaders shared their devastation at the death of the ‘a true legend’ and ‘genius’.
He posted a black and white photo of the singer performing on stage to X, formerly Twitter, writing: ‘O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done.’
And MacGowan’s sister Siobhan shared lyrics from the Pogues’ track, The Broad Majestic Shannon, writing: ‘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,’
Irish President Michael D Higgins hailed the musician as one of ‘music’s greatest lyricists’, adding: ‘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.
His wife Victoria Mary Clarke had posted regular updates about her husband’s wellbeing on social media
Singer Shane with his father Maurice, mother Therese and sister Siobhan celebrate his 40th birthday in 1997
MacGowan’s bandmate, Spider Stacy, was among famous faces leading tributes to the Irish star
Musician Kirsty MacColl and MacGowan pose together, each holding a toy gun with one hand and a Christmas cracker in the other over an inflatable Santa Claus in 1987 MacColl featured in the Pogues Christmas hit Fairytale of New York
Shane pictured with his wife Victoria inside a taxi
‘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.’
Irish DJ Annie Macnanus – better known as Annie Mac – said: ‘One of the finest lyricists of a generation. A man who loved Ireland with all his heart and took the music and culture and mixed it with his London upbringing to bring us The Pogues. What a band. What a discography.
‘I am thankful to my big brothers for playing The Pogues albums relentlessly round the house when I was growing up. His voice will be forever nostalgic for me, taking me straight home to Dublin.’
While Irish premier Leo Varadkar expressed his sadness at the death of the Pogues frontman.
‘He was an amazing musician and artist,’ he said on X. ‘His songs beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad.’
Shane MacGowan at The World nightclub, New York, America in February 1986
News of his death was announced in a post on Instagram by his wife today (pictured)
Tributes have poured in for the Irish singer on social media
Shane, pictured with Victoria, had been hospitalised a number of times since the diagnosis and was believed to have been admitted again in June
While many knew MacGowan primarily for his Christmas ballad Fairytale Of New York and his famously rotten teeth, he was in fact a deep thinker who drew on various elements of Ireland’s literary traditions to create an unorthodox musical alchemy which blended the traditional and modern to create something which was original, fearless and often exhilarating.
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.
The family later moved back to England and MacGowan earned a literature scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School in London but was expelled in his second year when he was caught in possession of drugs.
MacGowan became involved with the burgeoning punk movement in 1970s England, joining The Nipple Erectors, a band that had been formed in North London by Shanne Bradley.
Then known as Shane O’Hooligan, MacGowan became the front man and chief songwriter for the band which was later renamed The Nips, The group released four singles before splitting up.
He formed his own punk band before a revival in ethnic musical influences led him to form The Pogues in 1982.
The band played traditional Irish and rebel songs given new life by an injection of the energy, anger and anarchy of punk.
Dismissed by many initially as an embarrassing slice of Paddywhackery, the Pogues survived and then thrived due to the unexpected quality and depth of MacGowan’s songwriting.
The Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan has died aged 65
The rocker died on Thursday with his wife, Victoria, announcing the news (MacGowan pictured in 1989)
MacGowan has been battling ill health for eight years and had been wheelchair-bound before his death (he is pictured in October 2022)
MacGowan became involved with the burgeoning punk movement in 1970s England (he is pictured in 1988)
Shane is pictured sharing a tender moment with his sister Siobhan
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, MacGowan’s erratic lifestyle and prodigious drinking began to dim his creative output and limited his ability to fulfil live commitments and promotional activities.
Eventually, The Pogues sacked him in 1991 for his increasingly unreliable behaviour. He later claimed he had not been sober a single day in his life since he was 14.
MacGowan formed his own band The Popes and toured extensively. 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.
MacGowan began performing with The Pogues again in 2001 and continued to tour with the band for several years, although no new music was recorded.
In 2009 he appeared in his own reality TV show on RTE with long-time girlfriend Victoria Mary Clarke which featured their attempts to grow their own food. A later documentary followed a nine-hour medical procedure in which he had 28 new dentures fitted.
MacGowa performs with the Pogues for Saturday Night Live in 1990
MacGowan began performing with The Pogues again in 2001 and continued to tour with the band for several years, although no new music was recorded (he is pictured in 2014)
Singers Kirsty MacColl and MacGowan with with toy guns and an inflatable Santa in a festive scenario in 1987. The pair collaborated on the Pogues’ Christmas song Fairytale of New York
Shane MacGowan was plagued by ill-health linked to his years of alcohol and substance abuse
In his later years MacGowan was plagued by ill-health linked to his years of alcohol and substance abuse. In 2015 he fell when leaving a Dublin studio and broke his pelvis, which led to him subsequently having to use a wheelchair.
One of his last public appearances was in 2018 at a special 60th birthday celebration at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
Celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Bono, Sinead O’Connor and Cerys Matthews performed his songs while President Michael D Higgins presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In late November the same year, amid growing fears of MacGowan’s failing health, he and Clarke married in a quiet ceremony watched by guests including close friend Johnny Depp.
They tied the knot in Copenhagen, Denmark, after 32 years together, while Depp sang and plucked a guitar.
But despite the ongoing concerns over his health, MacGowan, who by now had all but cemented himself as Ireland’s most unlikely national treasure, was not finished just yet.
In 2019 he returned to the stage, appearing at the RDS Arena in Dublin as a guest for Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, though it was clear that his best performance days were some way behind him.
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.
MacGowan was famed for his rotten teeth. He is pictured with his brand new set of teeth in Malaga, Spain on May 13 2009.
A young Shane MacGowan is pictured during his time with the Pogues
The legendary Irish rocker was behind the iconic Christmas classic Fairytale of New York
MacGowan, of the Pogues, with his mother, Therese, at the family home in Nenagh, Tipperary, Ireland in 1997
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.
But things took a turn just one month later, when Clarke announced that he had returned to hospital.
‘Please send prayers and healing vibes to @ShaneMacGowan. In hospital again and really hoping to get out asap!! Thank you,’ she wrote on Twitter.
Clarke updated fans on his subsequent health battles, sharing photos of him in his hospital bed.
In July 2023 she wrote: ‘I just wanted to thank everyone who is sending love and prayers for ?@ShaneMacGowan.
‘We really appreciate it and bless all of you and anyone anywhere who is having health challenges! ?@poguesofficial.’
In November 2023 she shared a photo of MacGowan with tubes up his nose and a monitor clipped on to his ear.
She wrote: ‘I just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone who has been messaging me and ?@ShaneMacGowan and thank you ?@spiderstacy? and Terry Woods for coming to visit him love and prayers for everyone who is struggling right now hang in there!’
Victoria told fans on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘Shane got out of the hospital!’
The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan was ‘so happy’ after receiving a hospital visit from iconic singer Imelda May
Shane’s wife Victoria said she was desperate for him to come home by Christmas
Victoria told fans on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘Shane got out of the hospital!
‘We are deeply and eternally grateful to all of the doctors and nurses and staff at St Vincent’s it’s the best!
‘And special thanks to Tom Creagh and Brian Corscadden for your help.’
Shane has been hospitalised a number of times since the diagnosis and was believed to have been admitted again in June.
The family had hopes that Shane would be able to return home for the festive season.
This week the star was overjoyed to receive a visit from singer Imelda May.
Victoria shared an image of the two reuniting and thanked Imelda for the visit, saying: ‘Shane is so happy to see Imelda!!’
Shane received a whole host of A-list visitors while he has been hospital, including country singer Daniel O’Donnell and Primal Scream legend Bobby Gillsepie.
Among those paying tribute to the legend included Derry Girls actor Siobhan McSweeney who hailed MacGown as ‘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,’ she said on X. ‘That’s the place for me, I thought!
‘He also taught me how to miss home, whatever that may be. Damn shame, Shane.’
Members of the Pogues in 1984. Pictured are Shane MacGowan, Cait O’Riordan, Andrew Rankin, Jem Finer
MacGowan of The Pogues performs live on stage during Madstock festival 2009 at Victoria Park
Singer and musician Shane MacGowan, of the Pogues, with his mother, Therese, at the family home in Nenagh, Tipperary, Ireland
Irish President Michael D Higgins added there was ‘particular poignancy’ that the death of Shane MacGowan had followed closely that of Sinead O’Connor.
He said: ‘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.’
He added: ‘It was a great honour for me, as President of Ireland, to present Shane with a lifetime achievement award in the National Concert Hall in January 2018 as we marked his 60th birthday. A richly deserved honour.’
While Ireland’s deputy premier Micheal Martin said he was ‘devastated’ by MacGowan’s death, adding: ‘An iconic musician talented in many genres, particularly influenced by his time in Tipperary.
‘His passing is particularly poignant at this time of year as we listen to Fairytale Of New York – a song that resonates with all of us.’
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’.
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