[1/2] Musician Shane MacGowan departs the funeral service of his mother Therese MacGowan at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Silvermines, Ireland January 8, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsDUBLIN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Shane MacGowan, the London-Irish singer with The Pogues celebrated as one of Ireland's greatest song writers, has died, his wife said on Thursday. MacGowan, who transformed Irish traditional music with The Pogues and penned some of the most haunting ballads of the 1980s' before sinking into alcohol and drug addiction, died after a prolonged period of ill health. MacGowan achieved mainstream success with his bittersweet, expletive-strewn 1987 Christmas anthem "Fairytale of New York. Reporting by Muvija M, Graham Fahy and Conor Humphries; Editing by Kate Holton and Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Persons: Shane MacGowan, Therese MacGowan, Clodagh, MacGowan, Shane, Jesus, Mary, Therese, Victoria Mary Clarke, " MacGowan, Muvija M, Graham Fahy, Conor Humphries, Kate Holton, Bernadette Baum Organizations: Lourdes Church, REUTERS, Rights, London -, Pogues, Thomson Locations: Silvermines, Ireland, London, London - Irish, Irish, New York