The Fascinating and Overlooked Past of Shane MacGowan
Shane MacGowan is one of the most interesting and misunderstood figures in Irish culture. An intellectual, a genius musician and the centre of the Celtic Punk World. As one of An Post’s “Iconic Irish Voices” he will be immortalised on stamps available online and in post offices, alongside other Irish musicians who have shaped our culture.
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A Young Prodigy
Shane’s sheer intellectualism was startling even to his family. By age 11 he was reading texts most would not touch in their lives. Going through the likes of James Joyce, Dostoyevsky’s epics and John Steinbeck before entering secondary school. At 13, Shane was part of 33 out of 55,0000 who won £10 in a national literary competition run by the Daily Mirror.
“My writing started with stories of space and science fiction when I was five or six. When I was 10 I started getting some meaning into my work with the way of self expression and social commentary.” – He said to the Sussex Courier.
These literary skills is what earned Shane a scholarship to one of England’s most prestigious schools, Westminster School, where he would be expelled only two years after. It was also at this age where he was diagnosed with acute situational anxiety. Looking through the poetry of the Pogue’s lyrics, it’s easy to see he never lost it.
Shane O’Hooligan
By the age of 17, Shane had thrown himself into the music world (quite lterally). He had started a punk Fanzine under the name Shane O’Hooligan. This name proved fitting after he was featured as a prime example of the brutalism in the Punk scene in NME magazine. At a 1976 concert by The Clash, Shane was pictured with blood pouring from his ear, alongside the headline “These people are cannibals!”.
Pogue Mahone
In 1982, Shane established Pogue Mahone, anglicising ‘póg mo thóin’, drawing on his punk influences and combining that with traditional Celtic soundscapes. Nobody had combined these styles and the novelty as well as the depth of lyricism and sound, left Shane on a steady increase in popularity. The songs were mostly centred around the shared Irish struggle in England, as well as Republican themes. Shane attributed starting The pogues to his feeling of guilt for not supporting Ireland more politically. However, traditional Irish music circles did not welcome Shane’s sound as warmly, being dubbed as “The greatest disaster to hit Irish music by folk musician Tommy Makem.
In 1984, Shane and The Pogues opened for The Clash, coming full circle from his NME-featured days. The Pogues released their debut album in the same year. By 1987 songs such as “The Fairytale of New York”, made The Pogues a household name and saw the track go quintuple platinum in The Uk.
