Maurice MacGowan, the father of the late singer and frontman of The Pogues Shane MacGowan, had “a beautiful and noble soul”, his only remaining child told mourners at his funeral in Co Clare on Saturday.
A photograph of Maurice MacGowan, who was originally from Ranelagh in Dublin and late of Tipperary, was placed on a wall overlooking his wicker coffin which was adorned with bright yellow and orange flowers.
Maurice MacGowan died on Monday morning, aged 96.
“Maurice is gone and he’s going to be with his beloved Therese and Shane and I’m sure there’s going to be a hell of a hooley in heaven,” his daughter, Siobhan MacGowan, said.
READ MORE
Mourners gathered at Shannon Crematorium heard from the ceremony’s celebrant that he “was a bright and shining beacon of light for so many”.
Victoria Mary Clarke, Shane MacGowan’s widow, read a translation of The Broad Majestic Shannon in Irish, a song composed by The Pogues.
“The first time I met Maurice was at Christmas in 1986,” she said.
“I went to a bar and bought him a gin and tonic. And he said: ‘Women don’t buy drinks.’ He said to Shane, ‘I like her’.”
She said her late husband was “unfiltered like Maurice. He had a bullsh*t radar he inherited from his da. Maurice wrote poetry, he composed music, he translated Greek and Latin but he did all these things for himself. It was creativity for its own sake.
“I always felt Shane had inherited this very, very valuable gift which is something parents try to give their children ... there wasn’t a better gift to give a child, than the gift of believing in themselves which he did. Maurice was very funny, he had a razor sharp wit. He got on great with my mum and dad and with our family.”
Clarke revealed that Maurice MacGowan had “supported me so much when Shane died”.
“He was always there he really was. I always felt this great big man was at my back, he had my back. He adored his children so much.”
The crematorium was filled with musicians such as renowned accordion player Sharon Shannon.
Siobhan MacGowan explained that a Lullaby of London, created by her brother Shane, was chosen by her because it is about an Irish father who spoke to his children, all of whom were living in London.
She recounted how her father made “an impact not only on his large extended family, with long term friends who knew and loved him but on those he had only encountered briefly. But that comes as little surprise.
“I only had to say the word dad for a smile of recognition to break across their lips. A smile that I know that Dad did something outrageous and definitely humorous was likely to follow.
“He had a roguish, an irreverence, a sharp wit and a fierce sense of humour, yet a gentleness, a deep intelligence, a compassion for his fellow man, a caring for their wellbeing and not only for human kinds wellbeing, but with every being that shared the planet, every animal, very insect in the natural world he also cared for.
“In the last days of his life when he was in University Hospital Limerick all was quiet in the room. It was twilight and I kept the lights off so he could rest, it was not a profound moment. And I looked at him in bed peacefully sleeping and I found myself mouthing out loud to him and I said: ‘Dad you had lived a noble life.’ If he had heard me he would have laughed.”
She recounted how her father, who was born on October 27th, 1929, went to school in Belvedere, had an MA in Economics and worked devising financial structures in the international clothing firm CNA.
Míse Éire was performed by the musicians gathered in the crematorium and members of Maurice MacGowan’s family and close friends placed red roses on his coffin as they said their final goodbyes.
