Fairytale of New York singer Shane MacGowan dies aged 65 after eight-year health battle: The Pogues' rocker passes away just days after his wife shared wedding photo to celebrate five-year anniversary - as sister pays tribute to star

The Pogues' frontman Shane MacGowan has died aged 65. 

The legendary Irish rocker, who was behind the iconic Christmas song Fairytale of New York, died 'peacefully' on Thursday morning with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke and family by his side. 

The singer was diagnosed with viral encephalitis – a life-threatening condition which leads to brain swelling - and had been in and out of hospital for months. 

Sharing a throwback black and white photo of MacGowan on Instagram, heartbroken Victoria wrote: 'I don't know how to say this so I am just going to say it.

'Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.

'I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.'

A statement shared on behalf of his wife, Victoria, his sister Siobhan and father, Maurice, on The Pogues' official Instagram said: 'It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of SHANE MACGOWAN.

'Shane died peacefully at 3am this morning (30 November, 2023) with his wife Victoria and family by his side. Prayers and the last rites were read which gave comfort to his family.

'He is survived by his wife Victoria, his sister Siobhan and his father, Maurice, family and a large circle of friends. Further details will be announced shortly but the family ask for privacy at this very sad time.'

And in a touching tribute, MacGowan's sister Siobhan shared lyrics from the Pogues' track, The Broad Majestic Shannon. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, she wrote: 'So I walked as day was dawning; as small birds sang and leaves were falling, where we once watched the row boats landing on the Broad Majestic Shannon,'

News of MacGowan's death just days after Victoria shared a touching photo of the singer beaming in his hospital bed alongside the news he has left St Vincent's Hospital as they marked their five-year wedding anniversary.

Tributes have started to pour in following MacGowan's death, with Irish President Michael D Higgins hailing him as one of 'music's greatest lyricists'.

Mr Higgins said: 'Like so many across the world, it was with the greatest sadness that I learned this morning of the death of Shane MacGowan.

'Shane will be remembered as one of music's greatest lyricists.

'So many of his songs would be perfectly crafted poems, if that would not have deprived us of the opportunity to hear him sing them.

'The genius of Shane's contribution includes the fact that his songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams - of so many worlds, and particularly those of love, of the emigrant experience and of facing the challenges of that experience with authenticity and courage, and of living and seeing the sides of life that so many turn away from.

'His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways.'

Irish DJ Annie Macnanus - better known as Annie Mac - said: 'One of the finest lyricists of a generation. A man who loved Ireland with all his heart and took the music and culture and mixed it with his London upbringing to bring us The Pogues. What a band. What a discography. 

'I am thankful to my big brothers for playing The Pogues albums relentlessly round the house when I was growing up. His voice will be forever nostalgic for me, taking me straight home to Dublin.'

While Irish premier Leo Varadkar expressed his sadness at the death of the Pogues frontman.

'He was an amazing musician and artist,' he said on X. 'His songs beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad.'

Following in the wayward footsteps of James Mangan, Brendan Behan and Luke Kelly, Shane MacGowan first inherited and then took ownership of the concept of the raucous Irish poet/singer.

While many knew MacGowan primarily for his Christmas ballad Fairytale Of New York and his famously rotten teeth, he was in fact a deep thinker who drew on various elements of Ireland's literary traditions to create an unorthodox musical alchemy which blended the traditional and modern to create something which was original, fearless and often exhilarating.

Born on Christmas Day in Pembury, Kent, in 1957 to Irish parents (his father worked in retail and his mother was an Irish dancer), he soon moved to rural Tipperary where he was immersed in an Irish culture of ceili bands and showbands.

The family later moved back to England and MacGowan earned a literature scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School in London but was expelled in his second year when he was caught in possession of drugs.

MacGowan became involved with the burgeoning punk movement in 1970s England. He formed his own punk band before a revival in ethnic musical influences led him to form The Pogues in 1982.

The band played traditional Irish and rebel songs given new life by an injection of the energy, anger and anarchy of punk.

Dismissed by many initially as an embarrassing slice of Paddywhackery, the Pogues survived and then thrived due to the unexpected quality and depth of MacGowan's songwriting.

The band reached their critical peak with the 1985 album Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, and their commercial peak with 1988's If I Should Fall from Grace with God.

The latter provided the band with their biggest hit, MacGowan duetting with Kirsty MacColl on Fairytale of New York. Although it was kept off the coveted festive number one spot by The Pet Shop Boys, Fairytale regularly tops polls for the best Christmas song.

However, MacGowan's erratic lifestyle and prodigious drinking began to dim his creative output and limited his ability to fulfil live commitments and promotional activities.

Eventually, The Pogues sacked him in 1991 for his increasingly unreliable behaviour. He later claimed he had not been sober a single day in his life since he was 14.

MacGowan formed his own band The Popes and toured extensively. In 2001, Sinead O'Connor reported him to the police for drug possession - in what she said was an attempt to discourage him from using heroin.

MacGowan began performing with The Pogues again in 2001 and continued to tour with the band for several years, although no new music was recorded.

In 2009 he appeared in his own reality TV show on RTE with long-time girlfriend Victoria Mary Clarke which featured their attempts to grow their own food. A later documentary followed a nine-hour medical procedure in which he had 28 new dentures fitted.

In his later years MacGowan was plagued by ill-health linked to his years of alcohol and substance abuse. In 2015 he fell when leaving a Dublin studio and broke his pelvis, which led to him subsequently having to use a wheelchair.

One of his last public appearances was in 2018 at a special 60th birthday celebration at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Bono, Sinead O'Connor and Cerys Matthews performed his songs while President Michael D Higgins presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In late November the same year, amid growing fears of MacGowan's failing health, he and Clarke married in a quiet ceremony watched by guests including close friend Johnny Depp.

They tied the knot in Copenhagen, Denmark, after 32 years together, while Depp sang and plucked a guitar.

But despite the ongoing concerns over his health, MacGowan, who by now had all but cemented himself as Ireland's most unlikely national treasure, was not finished just yet.

In 2019 he returned to the stage, appearing at the RDS Arena in Dublin as a guest for Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, though it was clear that his best performance days were some way behind him.

In September 2020 a new documentary, Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, was released Directed by Julien Temple and produced by Johnny Depp, it featured unseen archival footage from the band and MacGowan's family, as well as animation from illustrator Ralph Steadman.

In 2021 it was revealed by Mick Cronin of Irish rock indie band Cronin that MacGowan had recorded with them in May.

'Once he's in the studio, he's all guns blazing,' the drummer told the New York Times.

In November 2022 MacGowan released his first art book. The book, titled The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold, included never-before-seen artwork, handwritten lyrics and school essays.

But things took a turn just one month later, when Clarke announced that he had returned to hospital.

'Please send prayers and healing vibes to @ShaneMacGowan. In hospital again and really hoping to get out asap!! Thank you,' she wrote on Twitter.

Clarke updated fans on his subsequent health battles, sharing photos of him in his hospital bed.

In July 2023 she wrote: 'I just wanted to thank everyone who is sending love and prayers for ?@ShaneMacGowan.

'We really appreciate it and bless all of you and anyone anywhere who is having health challenges! ?@poguesofficial.'

In November 2023 she shared a photo of MacGowan with tubes up his nose and a monitor clipped on to his ear.

She wrote: 'I just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone who has been messaging me and ?@ShaneMacGowan and thank you ?@spiderstacy? and Terry Woods for coming to visit him love and prayers for everyone who is struggling right now hang in there!'

Victoria told fans on X, formerly known as Twitter: 'Shane got out of the hospital!

'We are deeply and eternally grateful to all of the doctors and nurses and staff at St Vincent's it's the best!

'And special thanks to Tom Creagh and Brian Corscadden for your help.' 

Shane has been hospitalised a number of times since the diagnosis and was believed to have been admitted again in June. 

The family had hopes that Shane would be able to return home for the festive season. 

This week the star was overjoyed to receive a visit from singer Imelda May. 

Victoria shared an image of the two reuniting and thanked Imelda for the visit, saying: 'Shane is so happy to see Imelda!!'

Shane received a whole host of A-list visitors while he has been hospital, including country singer Daniel O'Donnell and Primal Scream legend Bobby Gillsepie.