Non-War Criminal Shane MacGowan Dies At 65
Non-War Criminal Shane MacGowan Dies At 65
The Pogues singer did not, to our knowledge, kill three million people.
For most of Shane McGowan’s life, he had a certain amount of guilt over not having joined the Irish Republican Army to fight for a unified Ireland.
“I was ashamed I didn’t have the guts to join the IRA – and the Pogues was my way of overcoming that,” he said in Julien Temple’s 2020 documentary, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan.
It remains notable, however, that he did not join the Irish Republican Army, and instead started a very good band, in which he sang a lot of songs about Irish nationalism and the Irish diaspora, and co-wrote what many consider to be the best Christmas song of all time.
Imagine what a nice world we would live in if other people chose to deal with things that way.
The Pogues frontman passed away on Wednesday night, following years of ill health, alcoholism and heroin addiction and a diagnosis of viral encephalitis last year.
While The Pogues were, of course, a seminal punk band — and the first to bring Irish folk music into the mix — they are perhaps best known by wider audiences for “Fairytale of New York,” MacGowan’s 1987 collaboration with singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl.
MacColl herself tragically died herself in 2000 after being hit by a speedboat while scuba diving in Mexico. Notably, MacColl’s father, folk singer Ewan MacColl, wrote “Dirty Old Town,” which was also a big hit for The Pogues. (Sidenote: We do not talk enough in the States about Kirsty or Ewan MacColl, who also wrote “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” … for Peggy Seeger, while he was still married to Kirsty MacColl’s mother. That part isn’t good, but the song is the best of all possible songs.)
In 1987, MacGowan and The Pogues also performed with The Dubliners and Joe Strummer on a cover of “The Irish Rover,” which I am just going to include because it is awesome and I love it so much.
MacGowan was booted from The Pogues in 1991 due to some pretty obnoxious (and naked) alcohol-inspired behavior getting out of hand, and went on to form Shane MacGowan and the Popes. He did a lot of things that maybe were not great at this time, but we can at least confidently say that he had nothing to do with inciting a genocide in Cambodia. So there is that!
He did, however, continue collaborating with a number of Irish folk singers during this time, including the legendary Christy Moore.
He also collaborated with Sinead O’Connor, who reported him to the police for drug possession in an effort to force him to quit heroin, which actually did end up working.
MacGowan finally reunited with The Pogues for touring purposes — I saw them in 2008 at the Chicago Riviera! — but they did not record any new music and eventually ended up breaking up again.
Whatever guilt MacGowan may have had over the fact that he did not (potentially) sacrifice his life as a young man to the Irish Republican cause ought to have been supplanted by the fact that he brought far more worldwide awareness and understanding of that cause with music than he ever would have with a car bomb.
I'm not sure the IRA would have taken him - his early life screams "sleeper agent recruited by MI5 at posh school":
"MacGowan was born on Christmas Day in Pembury, Kent, while his parents were visiting relatives. He grew up in Tunbridge Wells, often visiting family back in County Tipperary. His mother, Therese (nee Cahill), was a prize-winning Irish dancer and singer and former model, and his father, Maurice MacGowan, an executive at the C&A retail chain, loved literature and poetry. Shane was an avid reader; he attended the fee-paying Holmewood House prep school, near Tunbridge Wells, where his creative writing skills were first identified. He then won a scholarship to Westminster school in London at the age of 14, but a year later was found to be in possession of drugs and expelled."
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/30/shane-macgowan-obituary
Kirsty MacColl wasn't just "scuba diving"; she was killed while saving her son from a speedboat recklessly driven by an ultra-rich wanker who then got his employee to take the blame:
"As the group was surfacing from a dive, a powerboat moving at high speed entered the restricted area. MacColl saw the boat coming before her sons did. Louis, age 13 at the time, was not in its path, but Jamie, age 15, was. She was able to push him out of the way (he sustained minor head and rib injuries), but she was struck by the powerboat, which ran over her. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_MacColl#Death
"According to local newspaper reports, the Percalito’s captain and owner, 67-year-old Guillermo González Nova, who owns one of Mexico’s largest supermarket chains and hundreds of other stores and restaurants, had allegedly admitted to being at the helm when MacColl was hit. Local television coverage showed him being led away by police for questioning. However, hours later José Cen Yam, a 26-year-old deckhand employed by Nova, claimed to have been the driver, although he had no licence to handle such a powerful craft as the Percalito."
https://www.alixkirsta.com/articles/kirstymaccoll/index.htm
True story, Ewan MacColl HATED every version of "The First Time Ever I saw Your Face" except Seegers, which is IMHO by far the worst of any. Ah, love.