Former Pogues singer Shane MacGowan will be laid to rest on Friday, December 8, with his funeral scheduled to be held at St. Mary of the Rosary Church in the Irish town of Nenagh. MacGowan’s widow, author and journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, has shared her emotional reflections on the sad event in an Instagram post.
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“Tomorrow is Shane’s funeral which is hard to believe and probably I won’t believe it for a while,” she wrote. “Shane hated funerals and he refused to go to them with a few rare exceptions. So it’s incredible to think that so many people want to come to his and that so many beautiful people are pouring their hearts and souls into making it magnificent and magical and memorable for him and for us who are left behind.”
As reported in the Irish Independent newspaper, before MacGowan’s memorial, a funeral procession will be held in Dublin on Friday morning, starting at about 10:30 a.m. local time near where the singer and his wife lived and lasting about an hour and 15 minutes. MacGowan’s body will be transported in a horse-drawn carriage led by a piper and a marching band.
MacGowan’s hearse then will be driven to Nenagh, where a church ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. local time. Actor Johnny Depp and singer/songwriter Nick Cave are among the noteworthy celebs confirmed to attend the service, according to the Irish Independent. Depp was close friends with MacGowan and served as his best man at his 2018 wedding to Clarke.
Also in her Instagram post, Clarke thanked MacGowan’s fans for the outpouring of sympathy they have expressed following his November 30 death.
“I am feeling my heart ❤️ bursting open in all directions with the amount of love ❤️ that is being showered on us and most especially because everyone has their own problems and challenges and everyone has their own loved ones who they need to look after,” she wrote. “I feel that Shane is with me all the time and that he is feeling intense appreciation and gratitude and that he is still sending love ❤️ to everyone and maybe in a more powerful way from where he is now.”
Clarke also expressed her gratitude for the time she was able to share with MacGowan.
“I couldn’t have possibly asked for a more precious and enduring love ❤️ affair as a human,” she maintained, “and I got so much from my relationship with Shane that it would be greedy to want more!”
She added, cheekily, “And if you don’t want to come to the funeral Shane would definitely understand, he wouldn’t want to go either!”
Clarke concluded the message by suggesting a good way to honor the memory of MacGowan, who reportedly was very generous to down-and-out people he’d meet on the street.
“[I]f you want to remember him, the next time you see a homeless person stop and give them your time and your compassion and your respect and treat them like a brother or a sister,” she wrote.”
MacGowan died of pneumonia after years of poor health. He was 65.
