Shane MacGowan’s sister says she sings one of his most ‘beautiful’ Pogues every day at her home in Ireland

1 December 2023

Shane MacGowan’s sister sings one of his “beautiful” songs every day.

Shane MacGowan’s sister sings one of his ‘beautiful’ songs every day

Acclaimed novelist Siobhan MacGowan, 61, also recalled how she spent her childhood reading the end of James Joyce’s The Dead with her Pogues star sibling, who died aged 65 on Thursday (30.11.23) at his home in Dublin a few days after being released from St Vincent’s Hospital, where he had been in intensive care for the past few months after his viral encephalitis diagnosis last year.

Siobhan told Hot Press magazine about how she spends each day singing her second-favourite Pogues track at her home in Ireland: “Another track is ‘Broad Majestic Shannon’, because the Shannon (river) was a big thing in our young lives.

“It still is. I live near the Shannon. I walk by the Shannon and I sing the song to myself: ‘I walked as day was dawning, Where small birds sand and leaves were falling, Where we once watched the row boats landing, By the broad majestic Shannon.’

“I walk by it every day, it’s beautiful.”

Siobhan added her favourite one of Shane’s Pogues hits is ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ as it “reminds me of our time as youngsters in London”.

She added in a chat with Hot Press done ahead of Shane’s death for a special Pogues edition of the publication: “That time when the Pogues were first starting out, all the many nights we had in Soho.

“And all the laughs we had: ‘All the little girls and boys’ as it says in the song.

“The laughs and the good times, and the dreams and the sorrows.

“The crying and laughing and dancing, all of it. That just really touches me.”

Siobhan also fondly recalled how she spent her childhood with her brother reciting the end of James Joyce’s The Dead together – a short story about how the spirits of the deceased impact the living.

Quoting Joyce’s story, she said in a chat days before Shane’s death in hospital: “‘The snow was falling all over Ireland, snow was general all over Ireland. His soul swooned softly as he heard it. falling gently all over the universe. Softly falling upon the Bog of Allen and, further Westwards, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. The snow falling softly like the descent of their end upon the living and the dead.’

“Such a beautiful, beautiful end – I think that’s one of the most beautiful things ever written in the English language.

“I don’t think we’ve ever discussed it in those terms, but I think Shane would probably be of much the same mind.”