Shane MacGowan 'wanted Athlone tenor to be played at funeral'

Tributes are being paid to the legendary songwriter and performer Shane MacGowan following his death, at the age of 65, in the early hours of this morning (Thursday).

The Pogues frontman, who sang of The Broad Majestic Shannon, was an admirer of the renowned Athlone tenor John Count McCormack.

In his song The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn, which appears on The Pogues' 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, the opening line references both McCormack and Richard Tauber, who were well-known tenors in the early part of the twentieth century.

"McCormack and Richard Tauber are singing by the bed / There's a glass of punch below your feet and an angel at your head," is how the song starts.

And in an interview which was published in the Uncut music magazine in early 2007, MacGowan again made his admiration for McCormack clear.

During the interview he said that, at his funeral, he would like McCormack's rendition of Danny Boy to be played.

The statement today which announced Shane MacGowan's death said further details would be made public shortly, but asked for privacy on behalf of his family at this time.

MacGowan was one of the many prominent artists to have recorded music at the Grouse Lodge studios in Rosemount.

In early 2010, he was announced as one of the performers who would be taking to the stage at a music festival taking place that July at the Athlone Town Stadium in Lissywollen.

The festival went ahead, and featured performances by Imelda May and others, but MacGowan withdrew from the line-up a couple of months before it took place.

President Michael D Higgins led the tributes to Shane MacGowan today, describing him as one of music's greatest lyricists.

"So many of his songs would be perfectly crafted poems, if that would not have deprived us of the opportunity to hear him sing them," said President Higgins.

Shane MacGowan is survived by his wife Victoria, his sister Siobhan and his father, Maurice.

May he rest in peace.