Farewell Shane MacGowan, the last of the Irish Rovers… it was an honour to pick up your empties.
Shane probably wouldn’t remember it, he wouldn’t remember much after a slake of beer or whiskey.
But I was the glass collector the night he played the Ritzy nightclub in Aberdeen.
When he was at his most energetic and would rattle into Sally MacLennane, The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn or the Old Main Drag.
Swigging a bottle of lager before launching into his song and banging it down at the end before gargling a word of acknowledgement to me as I kept them lined up.
The Pogues’ oul rogue
Shane MacGowan was for so many of us Fiftysomething the soundtrack of our youth, the go-to artist and band to pogo to on the Union dancefloor.
And, of course, like all of the most treasured of artists, he is transgenerational.
He will be remembered most for his anthemic Christmas song Fairytale of New York with Kirsty MacColl which broke the mould of cheesy tinsel songs.
And many will see it as poignant that he should pass over to the other side as Christmas festivities get into full swing.
But it was as the lead singer of the band which fused the most unlikely bedfellows of Irish trad music and punk for which he will go down in music history as a pioneer.
Son of the oul’ sod
Of course, Shane was like me and millions, and this is where the link ends part of the great Diaspora, a son of a son (or daughter) of the sod.
Of those who had, like my Dear Old Mum and my Dad, whose own mum and his ancestors had taken the boat across to Britain.
Few because of the poor state of the economy back in the homeland could make a permanent move back to Ireland.
But they held the Irish culture, the politics, their nationalism, the song, the dance and the craic close to their hearts.
And pass it on to the new land they found themselves in which is why The Pogues became celebrated in London and across Britain.
From New York to the world
Of course, it is poignant that Fairytale of New York should be the ultimate Pogues standard as the bond formed between Ireland and America grows stronger year by year.
And underlined by American President Joe Biden who made an emotional return to the land of his fathers last year.
The unruffled ruffian with the broken glass teeth and the gravelly voice has gone and a million jukeboxes will blast out his hits across Irish bars around the world.
Farewell Shane MacGowan, the last of the Irish Rovers.
As he joins Jimmy from Sally Maclennane ‘who took the road for heaven in the morning.’
