Priest slams Shane MacGowan's funeral as 'completely inappropriate'

14 December 2023 , 16:31

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Priest slams Shane MacGowan's funeral as 'completely inappropriate'

Shane MacGowan's widow Victoria Mary Clarke has spoken out after a Catholic priest slammed Shane MacGowan's funeral service as "completely inappropriate" and an "abuse of the liturgy" in a scathing statement.

The Requiem Mass for The Pogues singer, which took place on Friday in Nenagh, Tipperary, was attended by hundreds of mourners and featured a number of unconventional elements, including a performance of the band's hit Christmas song, Fairytale of New York.

Victoria delivered a candid eulogy in which she discussed her late spouse's drug use, mentioned his 'illegal' consumption of Holy Communion and even referenced the Depp vs Heard libel case. The service was followed by a social in a nearby pub, where A-list pals of the late folk singer, including Johnny Depp, gathered to honour his incredible life.

Not everyone approved of the grandiose nature of Shane's funeral, however, with one priest in Northern Ireland particularly outraged by it. Amid the criticism of Shane's funeral by a member of the Catholic Church, Victoria has taken to social media to share a message with fans.

Mourners danced to Fairytale of New York at Shane's funeral (PA)

Captioning a shot of herself with her late husband, Victoria told her Instagram followers today: "I just wanted to say thank you for so many beautiful messages of support, I know that each and every one of you has plenty of problems and challenges of your own to be thinking about and you are all so generous and kind and thoughtful and compassionate and I am deeply grateful to you. Please take a moment to appreciate yourselves!!!

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"Sharing love in this world is the most beautiful thing you can do and the most valuable. I also want you to know that you really don’t need to feel sad for me because @shanemacgowanofficial is still very much with me in every moment and I feel very connected with him and I feel enormous love and encouragement from him and I feel his sense of humour and his pure joy and presence as if he is actually a part of me and he is never going to leave me because he is in my heart."

Victoria concluded: "I love that so many of you are celebrating his music and his life and his warmth and compassion and grace and beauty and it is a powerful thing to witness. There’s a lot of people that I want to individually thank for making his funeral so special and magical and I will probably be doing it for a long time!!!! Bless everyone everywhere always photo by @andrewcatlin."

Shane MacGowan's coffin being carried out of the church (PA)

"The introduction of all these elements into that funeral mass frankly was a scandal and it shouldn’t have happened," Father Paddy McCafferty of West Belfast had told Belfast Live. "If they wanted to have that sort of event they could have hired a hall somewhere and did all that." The disgruntled priest argued that Shane was a "good man in his way" and was therefore "entitled to a funeral mass as every baptised Catholic is," but that "there is no place" for songs like Fairytale of New York in the Eucharistic service.

"It was an abuse of the liturgy and it showed a completely askew understanding of what we actually are doing when we celebrate a funeral mass," he continued. Fairytale of New York, which skyrocketed The Pogues to global stardom after its 1998 release, was sung by Lisa O'Neill and Glen Hansard in a touching tribute to the late musician. Shane's family were seen dancing to the festive tune, which was notably missing its controversial 'F' word lyric after it was accused of being homophobic.

Fr McCafferty took particular issue with the performance, adding, "The words that are used in that song and in the church showed no understanding of the sacredness of what the place is and the holiness of the mass." He also slammed it as "completely inappropriate to say the least, to the point of scandal."

"Something needs to be done about these so-called celebrity funerals in a Catholic church. If people don’t want that then go somewhere else. I watched maybe a couple of minutes and thought my goodness, I couldn’t watch any more of that," Fr McCafferty added. "We’re not there to entertain, we’re there to celebrate the worship of God and lead people in the worship of God. I wouldn’t allow that in my church."

Shane MacGowan died of pneumonia in Dublin at the age of 65 on November 30, following a lengthy period of poor health. The Rainy Night in Soho singer had been hospitalised in 2022 with shingles and viral encephalitis, a severe condition that causes inflammation of the brain, before being admitted to the ICU last summer.

He also fractured his pelvis after a fall in 2015, and in 2021, he was left bedridden after tearing a ligament and then breaking his knee.

Emma Dooney