The loving family behind Shane MacGowan: The Pogues’ frontman – who lost his mother to a horrific New Year’s Day car crash in 2017 – owed his career to his relatives, including his ‘muse’ wife, loving sister and the ‘hero’ uncle who inspired him

Shane MacGowan died surrounded by those who had loved and supported him all his life.

The Pogues frontman died ‘peacefully’ this morning with his music journalist wife Victoria Mary Clarke and family by his side.

In an emotional post on social media, his sister Siobhan quoted the lyrics of the Irish band’s song The Broad Majestic Shannon, along with a photo of herself with her sibling.

She wrote on

The Fairytale of New York singer’s death was announced today at the age of 65 after an eight-year health battle.

Shane with his sister Siobhan, who paid an emotional tribute on social media after her brother’s death

MacGowan is survived by his wife, his sister, his father Maurice, family and a large circle of friends.

MacGowan was born in 1957 when his mother Therese unexpectedly went into labor while they were visiting his father’s sister in Kent.

He was born in Pembury maternity hospital and spent the first weeks of his life sleeping in a drawer in his aunt’s bedroom.

Therese was a singer and passed on her passion for music to her son and Maurice, from Dublin, a great reader. But it was Uncle John who was MacGowan’s greatest hero, described as ‘a Zen master in the art of swearing’. The rest of the time he remained completely and absolutely silent.”

At the age of five, his sister Siobhan was born, but the siblings were not always as close as they were as adults, with MacGowan calling her “it” because he was full of jealousy.

He told The guard in 2013: ‘I was extremely jealous because she was getting all the attention and I wanted it. I called her “it” for most of her childhood. But I think that’s something that comes naturally to children. We get along very well now: I can’t imagine a better sister.’

MacGowan and Siobhan grew up on a farm in Tipperary, Ireland, while his parents worked most of the time in England.

He and his sister were huddled around a transistor radio on the farm in December 1987 when Fairytale of New York reached number two in Britain.

While MacGowan would forever be remembered for that Christmas hit, Siobhan turned to writing and went on to have a successful career as an author and songwriter.

Shane celebrates his 40th birthday with a cake with his father Maurice, mother Therese and sister Siobhan before appearing on the Late Late Show in 1997

Pogues singer MacGowan first met Clarke when she was just 16 years old and he was 24, but it would be another four years before they started dating.

It was a long courtship for the couple who only got engaged in 2007 and were not married for another eleven years.

Home: Shane (centre) returned home after being discharged from hospital amid a battle with a brain condition, as his wife Victoria shared a photo of him in his hospital bed

Victoria has written several books, including a biography of her husband that they wrote together, entitled A Drink With Shane MacGowan. In the photo: the couple shares a kiss

She said Business mail about how the house was full of books when she was growing up. Maurice loved Irish writers and Greek plays, while Therese was drawn to the classics of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and William Thackeray.

In their youth, on long car journeys to Holyhead to catch the ferry to Dublin, she and Shane would bury themselves under a blanket and write.

Siobhan dabbled in music and had her own band called The Frantic with gigs in Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s, but she “never felt completely comfortable with life as a performing artist.”