DETAILS OF SHANE MacGowan’s funeral cortege through Dublin have been announced.
The Irish singer and musician, best known for being the frontman of The Pogues, died last Thursday at home, aged 65.
In a statement today, MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke, his father Maurice, sister Siobhan and wide family said they would “like to thank everyone for the enormous outpouring of affection and messages of condolence they have received since his passing”.
“Knowing that people might wish to have the opportunity to say a final farewell”, the statement said, MacGowan’s funeral cortege will pass through the streets of Dublin from 11am on Friday.
The cortege will begin at the South Lott’s Road Junction on Ringsend Road, continuing onto Pearse Street, passing Pearse Square and will move along Pearse Street.
It will then turn left onto Westland Row, and end at the top of Westland Row, with a nod to ‘Sweny’s Pharmacy’ where the procession will end.
From there the cortege will continue to Tipperary.
MacGowan’s remains will arrive at St Mary’s of the Rosary Church in Nenagh for his funeral Mass at 3.30pm. A private cremation will follow and his family has asked for privacy.
“Shane’s family are thankful for the many people that loved him as a musician, songwriter and champion of Ireland and its culture and hope they are in some way repaying that loyalty by giving those that loved and admired him a chance to wish him god speed and say slán,” the statement said today.
Speaking to Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio One on Saturday, Clarke said it was a shock to her when the medical staff told her that her husband was going to die because she believed he was going to recover from his illness, like he had done before.
“It was a massive shock. I actually thought I was going to die myself when I heard. My body just gave out, I was vomiting and collapsing and not able to function. I actually lay down in the hospital for a while before I went into the room.”
Shane had been receiving treatment in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for a number of months before he was discharged on 22 November.
He had been diagnosed with encephalitis last year. Despite this, he and his wife posted videos to his Instagram pages to wish his fans best wishes and their friends a happy birthday throughout this year.
Clarke said: “He had so many of these. He had been in intensive care so many times over the years, in London and in Ireland, and even in America.
“I remember him getting pneumonia in L.A while we were on tour and the tour manager was like ‘I don’t see how he can get through this’. But he always did. I just had this faith that he would.”
Shane MacGowan lived briefly in Tipperary as a young child before the family moved back to England when he was six. His wife spoke of how he “felt a sense of a place and a sense of Old Ireland” when he would go back to visit.
The Pogues became hugely influential to Irish at home and abroad for their covers of old Irish trad songs, stylised into Shane’s punk-rock esthetic.
With reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
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