‘He embodied who we are, warts and all’: Dublin mourners bid farewell to Shane MacGowan
They followed the horse-drawn carriage singing songs that were written as raucous ballads. But on this day, the crowds of mourners sung softly, their voices floating into a grey Dublin day in farewell to Shane MacGowan.
The Pogues singer was dead but for mourners his lyrics seldom felt so alive as his funeral cortege wound through the heart of Ireland’s capital on Friday.
There were tears and applause as the near 50-member marching band paused along the route to play Fairytale of New York and other hits that, for some, recalled memories of pubs and clubs, squats and bedsits, youth, dreams and loss.
“It’s important to say goodbye to a huge legend,” said Sean O’Donnell, holding a tricolour flag, as thousands gathered. “We’ll still be listening to these songs a hundred years from now.”
The procession was a prelude to a celebrity-studded funeral in Nenagh, County Tipperary, which was to be followed on Saturday by cremation and a scattering of ashes into the river that inspired MacGowan’s The Broad Majestic Shannon, about an exile’s yearning for home.
“He was one of the greatest Irishmen,” said Dermot Doran, 55. “He embodied the soul and spirit of this country. He embodied who we are, warts and all, and expressed it magnificently. We’ll always be proud of Shane, just like the English are of Dickens.”
Doran recalled a 1986 gig in New York when MacGowan slugged from a huge bottle of white wine that he shared with the audience. “You don’t get many people doing that nowadays.”
The songwriter and vocalist died on 30 November at the age of 65 after a long illness, drawing tributes from artists and musicians around the world