Shane MacGowan, the singer-songwriter best known as the frontman of Celtic punk band the Pogues who found success with the 1987 song “Fairytale of New York,” died on Thursday. He was 65.
MacGowan’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, announced the news via the musician’s Instagram account on Thursday. MacGowan was diagnosed with encephalitis in 2022, which is inflammation of the brain, and had been hospitalized for it recently.
“I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it,” the post reads. “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 announcement continues, “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. 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.”
Blessed with a harsh, untutored, yet inimitably soulful voice, MacGowan forged a blend of traditional Irish folk music and punk rock that was later mimicked outright by bands the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, and left a clear influence on acts such as Gogol Bordello and Mumford and Sons. Yet he was perhaps most gifted as a lyricist, displaying a knack for vivid, heart-breaking narratives and a highly literate sensibility that belied his gutter-poet image, deftly incorporating esoteric references to James Joyce, Brendan Behan and ancient Irish folklore into his songs.