Music followers can get drunk at a pub named after legendary Pogues hell-raiser Shane MacGowan
Music fans will be able to get drunk at a pub named after hell-raiser Shane MacGowan. The boozer, set to open in New York, will be a “living tribute to a true icon”, bosses said.
The Irish Rover singer – who died aged 65 in 2023 – was as famous for hard living and drinking as he was for his music and once said: “I was given six weeks to live, about 25 years ago.”
No date has been set for when the Manhattan bar will open, but bosses said it will be “a little bit of Tipperary, a little bit of Dublin and a whole lot of Shane.”
It will be located in West 14th Street and will see a former Irish bar called McKenna’s converted into a tribute to the legendary Pogues frontman.
A statement said: “We are incredibly honoured to be opening this space with the blessing of Shane’s family, bringing his raw, poetic Irish punk spirit to the West Village.”
Shane, born in Kent to Irish parents, spent his childhood in rural Tipperary, and fused punk rock with traditional Irish music as singer-songwriter of Pogue Mahone – an Anglicisation of the Irish phrase pòg mo thòin, meaning ‘kiss my a**e’.
They later shortened the name to The Pogues and He wowed fans by his performances on stage and in the bar. He was praised as “the greatest songwriter of his generation” who had “lived life to the full” after his death.
Widow Victoria Mary Clarke, who married hedonistic Shane in 2018 after they had spent decades together, once said of their relationship: “There was a lot of excitement and I got to travel all over the world.
“But at the same time, always wondering like, ‘Will he overdose? Will he get arrested? Will he die? So I suppose it’s like having a four-year-old who’s got a credit card.”
Shane died at his Dublin home, just weeks before his 66th birthday. He had been battling ill health for a number of months and had been in and out of hospital on several occasions.
A tribute album celebrating his legacy is set to be released later this year will feature a song from U2.
The star-studded album, entitled 20th Century Paddy, will see 40 artists including include Bruce Springsteen cover some of his best tracks.
