The singer of the Anglo-Irish punk band The PoguesShane MacGowan, is dead. The musician, best known for the Christmas hit “Fairytale Of New York”, “Dirty Old Town” and “A Pair of Brown Eyes”, died at the age of 65 after a long, serious illness , his wife shared Victoria Mary Clarke on Instagram with. “Shane will always be the light I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life,” it says.
MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 to Irish immigrants in the southeastern English county of Kent, but reflected on his Irish roots in his music. He founded the Irish punk band Pogue Mahone, later shortened to The Pogues, in 1982 and released seven studio albums. He was their frontman until the band disbanded in 2014.
In 1988, Kirsty MacColl collaborated with The Pogues on the Christmas song “Fairytale of New York”, written by MacGowan. The ballad, about the thoughts of an Irish immigrant contemplating his dreams in a sobering cell, reached number two in the UK charts and number one in Ireland.
MacGowan wrote frequently about Irish nationalism. “I was ashamed that I didn’t have the courage to join the IRA. The Pogues were my way of coping,” he once said of the Catholic Republican terrorist organization.
MacGowan began drinking alcohol as a child and later suffered the consequences of heavy alcohol and drug abuse. By his thirtieth birthday he had almost no teeth left in his mouth and later, like many heroin addicts, he was emaciated to the bone. Fans and friends are still surprised to this day that he survived the 1990s. In 2000, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor reported him for drug possession in order to cure him of his addiction. It worked, and MacGowan later thanked her for it.