He wasn’t ready to stop fighting but his body did it for him...
» Widow: I held Shane’s hand as he passed away » She’s received ‘love & support from so many’
SHANE Macgowan fought to the end and desperately wanted to live, his heartbroken widow revealed yesterday.
Victoria Mary Clarke said despite being seriously ill the Pogues icon wanted to go on, but his body gave up on him.
In an emotional radio interview she said he was “putting up a really strong fight” when he passed away at their Dublin home on Thursday.
She also revealed that despite being close to death he managed to complete a new album before he died.
The 65-year-old singer had been receiving treatment at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for several months after contracting viral encephalitis.
He was discharged on November 22 and returned home to spend time with
his friends and family. On Friday Victoria revealed he died of pneumonia.
“He was putting up a very strong fight,” she told Brendan O’connor on RTE Radio 1. “He was trying very hard to breathe and they had to put one of those masks on.
“He wasn’t ready to give up. He wasn’t ready to stop fighting, but his body did it for him. His body was just like, we can’t do this any more.”
Victoria told how she and her sister held Shane’s hands as he slipped away, as a priest said prayers over him.
She revealed: “I think he was aware that we were there, me and my sister held his hands and the priest was saying the prayers.
“He actually died during the prayers, which was good for him.”
She also told how her “soulmate” stayed positive throughout his health battles and was smiling to the end.
Victoria said: “Shane wouldn’t have thought of it as an end of life journey.
“He was as happy as he could be with all of the different pains he had.
“He always smiled, always remembered to thank the doctors, thank the nurses, thank everybody who came in to see him. Even if he was in pain he was pleased to be alive, pleased to see everyone who came in, happy to have the chat.”
Shane was kept busy in his final months, Victoria confirmed, naming just some of the faces who came to visit.
“He had a lot of people visiting,” she said. “Lots of musicians like Bono, The
Losing Shane has been the thing that I feared most for a very long time VICTORIA MARY CLARKE SHANE’S WIDOW
Edge, Mundy, Imelda [May], Daniel O’donnell, Moya Brennan, Aidan Gillen, Jim Sheridan, Bobby Gillespie.”
Shane was released from the hospital a week before he died, to spend time with family and friends after months of treatment at St Vincent’s.
Victoria said that despite his condition news from doctors that Shane’s life was nearing an end and she was “going to have to say goodbye” came as a “massive shock”.
She said: “I actually thought I was going to die myself when I heard. My body just gave out and I felt like I was vomiting and collapsing and not able to function.
“He’d had so many of these. He’d been in intensive care so many times all over the years – in London and in Ireland and even in America. I just had this faith that he would [get through this].” She also confirmed that before his death Rainy Night in Soho singer Shane had finished recording a new album. “He did actually finish it [album] which is great,” she said. “It sounded good. And he played it to [rock critic] Will Hodgkinson. “Will liked it, which was a good thumbs up. So I guess it’ll come out.” She also talked about how Shane would pray for other people, saying his spiritual beliefs boiled down to “love and forgiveness” for all. She said: “It was something that he did for other people. He’d be praying for people that he heard about on the news.
“He’d pray for people – even characters on telly, I did try and tell him they weren’t real but he’d pray anyway.
“I don’t think he ever found a way to pray for himself, he’d pray for me... or my sister who had an illness but I don’t think he prayed for himself.”
Earlier yesterday Victoria threw her backing behind Fairytale of New York, recorded with Kirsty Maccoll in 1987, for a Christmas number one.
She told BBC Radio: “It would be nice, wouldn’t it? It should be the Christmas number one. It absolutely should.”
Reminiscing about their enduring love, she said: “He was the kind of husband that would tell you how beautiful you are every single day.”
Victoria also revealed she’d feared losing Shane almost from the beginning of their relationship in the 1980s. She wrote on Instagram: “Losing Shane has been the thing that I feared most for a very long time, almost since we first got together.
“I just wanted to say that there has been so much love and support from so many people that it’s like being on the Titanic and then finding the raft.
“It’s rough and it’s choppy and it’s freezing and scary, but there is a feeling that safety is not too far away.”
Shane’s full funeral details have not yet been announced but he is expected to make his final journey to the church where his beloved mother Therese’s funeral took place.
It is believed his funeral and cremation will be held in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, near the family farm where he grew up, with his ashes scattered on the River Shannon.