Cork choir member says nothing prepared group for singing at Shane MacGowan's Requiem Mass
Cór Chúil Aodha, which was founded by Seán Ó Riada in 1964 and is now directed by Peadar Ó Riada, sang at the funeral for Shane MacGowan in Nenagh on Friday. They're pictured here singing in the church in Cúil Aodha.
Although Cór Chúil Aodha, the choir founded by Seán Ó Riada and now directed by his composer son, Peadar, has performed at many funerals including one of a former Irish president and several other musicians and notable people since it was founded almost 60 years ago, nothing quite prepared us for the experience of singing at the Requiem Mass for Shane MacGowan, lead singer with The Pogues, poet, lyricist and cosmonaut, the description of his wife Victoria Mary Clarke.
Victoria and her sister Vanessa were the main links of the choir to Shane MacGowan as the sisters had lived in a cottage on the road to our Múscraí/Cork Gaeltacht village during their teen years.
Although Victoria did the Leaving Cert the same year as I did it, back in the 1980s, she had attended the local vocational school, now Coláiste Ghobnatan, while I had gone to Coláiste Íosagáin, long since closed.
I barely knew her but her name lived long in her school after she left as it was inscribed on a certificate hung on the wall at the entrance proclaiming her Leaving Certificate results to be among the best in the county of that year.
The community took a great deal of pride in her achievements since, her celebrity status as the wife of Shane McGowan and her journalism and other writing.
So when the request arrived from Victoria herself for the ‘Cóir’ to sing at the funeral, there was a sense that this would be a special funeral as there were going to be other musicians involved – the ‘thumbs up’ symbol flashed frequently in the ‘WhatsApp’ group as members from Cúil Aodha, many of them scattered around the country signalled we would be there in strength.
Arriving at St. Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh just after 1pm for a 3pm start, the crowds were already gathering, the media were there in force and we had to negotiate past several ushers to get to the choir’s seats next to a massive church organ near the altar.
The church was packed with some seats at the top of the church empty to cater for the chief mourners who were in the cortege.
At various points an announcement would be made, interrupting sound checks involving Glen Hansard, Lisa O’Neill and other well-known names of the Irish musical scene, asking people standing in the aisles to move back in the church so the mourners bearing the remains of Shane McGowan would be able to enter.
The overriding sense of what was happening in the Church was respectful to the occasion but given that Shane was the lead singer of a band that once did a Christmas tour called the ‘Stuff the Turkey’s A**e With Holly’ tour, a gig I attended in the old Sir Henry’s, there was also a sense of anarchy in the air.
When Shane’s coffin, bearing the Irish tricolour, was finally shouldered into the church and we began singing Críost Liom, an Irish version of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, the funeral Mass, whose chief celebrant was local Parish Priest, Fr. Pat Gilbert, could begin.
I love ❤️ these people Glen Hansard and Lisa IO'Neill Perform "Fairytale of New York" at Shane M... https://t.co/tR7stJwbCj via @YouTube
— @victoriamary (@Victoriamary) December 9, 2023
His was an unenviable task – juggling the role of Priest and Master of Ceremonies for a cast of what seemed like hundreds of musicians.
An order of service booklet detailing those who were singing or playing an instrument at the Mass wouldn’t have been out of place as a programme at the National Concert Hall – here Shane received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D. Higgins, an accolade which brought tears of gratitude and fulfillment to his eyes, his sister Siobhán McGowan would tell us in her eulogy to her brother later.
The funeral proceeded, punctuated frequently and sometimes not according to the order of service – this was, as Fr. Gilbert reminded us, happening live – with a host of stars singing songs written by Shane being performed by the stars in attendance to pay tribute to their departing friend.
He had left them a rich heritage which they celebrated – Imelda May and Declan O’Rourke sang ‘You’re The One’, Mundy and Camille O’Sullivan performed Haunted and Cait O’Riordan and John Francis Flynn sang ‘The Man You Don’t Meet Every Day’. Colm Mac an Iomaire, John Sheehan and a band of musicians provided the melody and the backbeat. The church was rocking at times.
Nick Cave, a longtime friend of Shane, arrived a little later than scheduled but he too performed his piece, sitting down at the grand piano and telling the band ‘in the key of C’, he sang my own favourite Pogues song, Rainy Night In Soho.
The usual things that happen at funerals happened here, but a little unusually – symbols of Shane’s life were brought to the altar, including a Tipperary jersey and hurley, books and albums, a statue of the Virgin Mary which had been at his bedside, and a wedding photograph from the day he and Victoria had married.
The readings were given by Dave Coon, a man with strong Macroom links, Aidan Gillen the actor and Bono, who wasn’t present in the church as he was performing in Las Vegas but he had provided a recording.
The Prayers of the Faithful were led by Johnny Depp who spoke about peace, love and forgiveness, while Sarah Leahy extended the family’s thanks to the carers who had looked after Shane in St. Vincent’s Hospital and home carers who had tended him while he was at home.
There were frequent bursts of applause but the respect remained for the religious nature of the service.
When Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill, with the original Pogues led by Spider Stacey, started ‘The Fairytale of New York’ after the Eucharist, the area before the altar momentarily became a dance floor with Victoria and Vanessa and other friends taking a swing around it, taking care to mind the wickerwork coffin, to the tune of the familiar anthem, it was a magical moment that will live for us forever.
A raucous unleashing of the spirit of celebrating a life, as Father Gilbert said in his Homily, that had been truly lived.
The final notes of ritual were preceded by eulogies from Shane’s sister, Siobhán, and Victoria, who paid tribute to Shane’s dad, Maurice, who was alongside in the front pew, and his mother, Therese, a regular mass-goer with her son in this church, and one last song from The Pogues, The Parting Glass.
The coffin was hoisted onto the shoulders of his friends, including Johnny Depp, to be carried out of the church as Cór Chúil Aodha sang our traditional anthem to bid farewell to a friend and neighbour, Mo Ghile Mear. S’é mo laoch, mo ghile mear! He is our hero, the fleeting brightness.
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