Shane MacGowan’s death today follows years of ill health, his mother dying in a car crash and the tragic passing of fellow singer Kirsty MacColl in a speedboat accident aged 41. 

The legendary Pogues frontman died aged 65 after an eight-year battle with a brain condition. Earlier in his life, he had overcome alcoholism, a heroin addiction, a high-speed fall from a car and numerous drunken fights. 

MacGowan’s life was touched by family tragedy, with the punk icon losing his mother Therese on New Year’s Day 2017 when she accidentally drove her car into a wall near her home in rural Ireland. 

He was also left devastated in 2000 when MacColl – a friend as well as a collaborator – was killed after being hit by a speedboat while scuba diving in Mexico with her two sons and musician boyfriend, James Knight. 

MacGowan later admitted to feeling depressed when singing Fairytale of New York and said it would have ‘flopped’ without her. 

The late Shane MacGowan pictured with Kirsty MacColl who died in December 2000. The pair sung together in the smash hit The Fairytale of New York

MacColl and MacGowan pose with toy guns and an inflatable Santa in 1987 marking their hit Fairytale of New York

The punk icon had earlier lost his mother Therese in shocking circumstances when she died after her car smashed into a wall on New Year’s Day 2017. Pictured, from left: Shane, his father Maurice, Therese and Shane’s sister Siobhan

Born in the English county of Kent to Irish parents on Christmas Day 1957, MacGowan in his autobiography described early childhood summers spent at an Irish farmhouse with his extended family, drinking, smoking and singing traditional songs.

‘It was like living in a pub,’ he told the Guardian in 2013.

After winning a scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School in London, MacGowan struggled to fit in and was expelled two years later for drug use and started hanging out in London bars with other musicians.

At 17, his alcohol and drug use helped trigger a mental breakdown and he was kept in a psychiatric hospital for six months.

After recovering, he embraced the eruption of punk in London in the late 1970s and early 80s with his band Pogue Mahone – Gaelic for ‘kiss my a***’. 

The height of the Pogues success came in 1987 with Fairytale of New York, which MacGowan sang in a duet with MacColl to create an instant Christmas classic, despite radio unfriendly lyrics in which the estranged couple exchange insults.

MacGowan’s erratic lifestyle and prodigious drinking began to dim his creative output and limited his ability to fulfil live commitments and promotional activities. 

He later claimed he had not been sober a single day in his life since he was 14. 

After a series of hallucinogenic benders, including one night in New Zealand when he stripped naked and painted himself blue, the Pogues fired MacGowan during a 1991 tour of Japan.

In 2001, Sinead O’Connor reported him to the police for drug possession – in what she said was an attempt to discourage him from using heroin. 

The singer suffered from a raft of health problems in his later years, and before his death today had been in intensive care for months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis last year.

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The singer was diagnosed with the illness late last year and it was said to have exacerbated by shingles that spread to the eye. 

It was just the latest in a long list of medical mishaps for MacGowan.

In 2016 he fell and broke his pelvis while dancing and was forced to use a wheelchair or a Zimmer frame. 

Another fall left him with a broken right knee and torn ligaments around his left knee.

The series of falls has left his wife as his carer and the singer previously said he does not expect to walk again. 

The song was released in 1988 and has become of the the great Christmas anthems. But it hides a darker story 

MacGowan has been in intensive care for months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis last year

The English singer died aged 41 in 2000 after a horrific boating accident while scuba diving in Mexico with her two sons 

MacGowan (centre) lying in his hospital bed in a photo shared by his wife, Victoria 

Shane’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke shared the news of his death today in a post on Instagram. I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it,’ she wrote. 

‘Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.

‘I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.’

In a touching tribute, MacGowan’s sister Siobhan shared lyrics from the Pogues’ track, The Broad Majestic Shannon, in honour of her brother. 

Taking to X she wrote: ‘So I walked as day was dawning; as small birds sang and leaves were falling, where we once watched the row boats landing on the Broad Majestic Shannon,’

A statement from MacGowan’s spokesperson confirmed he ‘died peacefully at 3.30am this morning with his wife and and sister by his side’.

‘Prayers and the last rites were read during his passing,’ he added.

MacGowan’s mother, Therese, (left) died in a car crash on New Year’s Day 2017. They are pictured with Shane’s father, Maurice 

The Pogues singer in an Instagram photo with his father Maurice and sister Siobhan 

Mrs MacGowan, pictured with her son at a charity event in 2007, was a singer and traditional Irish dancer, and had worked as a model in Dublin