The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
‘Measurer of dreams’ MacGowan laid to rest
Irish singer’s star-studded funeral features scores of musical tributes from friends and family
A STAR-STUDDED congregation rose to its feet and danced to the Pogues’ classic Fairytale of New York as Ireland laid singer Shane MacGowan to rest yesterday.
Friends and family of the Pogues frontman – from the actor Johnny Depp to musicians Bob Geldof and Nick Cave, and even Ireland’s president – filled the Saint Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, Co Tipperary to pay their respects. Many stood and swayed, as family members danced in the aisles to a rendition of MacGowan’s 1987 Christmas hit sung by Irish singer-songwriters and musicians Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neil.
“Wow, I think Shane would have enjoyed that,” his sister Siobhan said as she stood to deliver a eulogy after the performance. “That’s some send-off for my brother, so thank you.”
The frontman, who died aged 65 last week after a fight with pneumonia, “dreamed of one day being the teller of stories, the singer of the songs, he dreamed of following in the footsteps of those great Irish lyricists and musicians he so admired”.
“You did what you said you were going to do in those long ago days in Tipperary and you did it with such heart and fire,” she said, to cheers and applause from the church.
Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Féin leader, said MacGowan’s music would “live forever” as he addressed the funeral, which was broadcast live around the world. “You are the measurer of our dreams,” he said. “My words are words of gratitude, gratitude for Shane’s genius, for his songs, his creativity and his attitude.”
Pirates of the Caribbean actor Depp, a close friend of MacGowan and his wife Victoria, read the Prayer of the Faithful in honour of the musician.
A record by Depp, who attended their wedding in 2018, was earlier placed as a symbol of MacGowan’s life at the altar. The musician loved his friend’s music and “guitar noises”, Victoria said. Almost everyone who attended their wedding was in attendance at the funeral, she added.
Also placed at the front of the church was the first Pogues record, a Led Zeppelin album, as well as a flag of Tipperary, which was met with a ringing applause.
The Casio keyboard MacGowan used to write his 1990 hit Summer in Siam was among the symbolic items brought in to celebrate his life. Australian musician Nick Cave, 66, performed the classic Pogues love song Rainy Night in
Soho, while Irish performers Mundy and Camille O’Sullivan sang Haunted. U2 frontman Bono, who could not make the service, had his recorded tribute to MacGowan played out to the church.
Delivering the homily, Father Pat Gilbert said MacGowan had made Irish music cool around the world.
He added: “As teenagers, not being able to verbalise our uneasiness, displeasure, our uncomfortable assessment of what was happening all around us, we found an outlet, a channel, a conduit in the music and lyric of the day.
“But the music and the lyrics were tremendous, and Shane was the master of them all.”
The funeral service was the culmination of a day of mourning across Ireland.
In Dublin, mourners gathered in their tens of thousands, singing the band’s songs as a glass horse-drawn carriage carried MacGowan’s remains through the city, his coffin adorned with the Irish tricolour and black-andwhite photographs of the singer in his youth.
The funeral took place on what would have been Sinead O’Connor’s 57th birthday. The Irish singer, who was close friends with MacGowan, died earlier in 2023.
One of the final musical tributes fell to the former members of The Pogues – Jem Finer, Terry Woods, Spider Stacey and James Fearnley. They played The
Parting Glass, a traditional Scottish song often sung in Ireland at the end of a gathering of friends.
‘My words are words of gratitude, gratitude for Shane’s genius’