LONDON — Thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin on Friday to say goodbye to The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan as his coffin wound through the Irish capital before a small-town funeral attended by family, neighbors and friends including Johnny Depp and Nick Cave. MacGowan died Nov. 30 at the age of 65 after […]
Thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin on Friday to say goodbye to The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan as his coffin wound through the Irish capital before a small-town funeral attended by family, neighbors and friends including Johnny Depp and Nick Cave.
MacGowan died Nov. 30 at the age of 65 after a lifetime of drinking, carousing and writing songs that fused Irish traditional music with the spirit of punk.
He became an Irish cultural icon, and Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins was among hundreds of people who packed St. Mary of the Rosary Church in the town of Nenagh for the funeral Mass.
Mourners at the service, in MacGowan’s ancestral home county of Tipperary some 100 miles southwest of Dublin, included former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Irish actor Aidan Gillen, who both gave readings. There was also a recorded reading from Bono of U2. Depp, a friend of the musician, was among those who helped lead the prayers.
Father Pat Gilbert welcomed “the world of people this great man influenced, encouraged, entertained and touched” to the service, which was broadcast live on television and online.
