Christmas came early this year in Dublin, but too late for a beloved adopted son.
On the last evening in November, a wet Thursday, cars at the rush hour stop lights blared “Fairytale of New York” on a thousand radios.
From the sidewalk, you could hear drivers and passengers singing along: “The boys from the N.Y.P.D.
choir still singing ‘Galway Bay,’ and the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day.”The song’s renowned lyricist and co-writer, Shane MacGowan, the British-born frontman of the punk-folk band the Pogues, died earlier that day.
Ireland — his greatest muse, and ancestral home — was coming to terms with a death that had, thanks to MacGowan’s well-known addictions to alcohol and drugs, long been foretold.
Persons:
Shane MacGowan, —, MacGowan
Organizations:
Galway, Christmas, Ireland, Big Apple
Locations:
Dublin, York, ’, British