Shane MacGowan's sister has admitted that listening to his music is too painful to bear.
The Pogues singer passed away in November 2023 following a long illness aged 65, and his passing has meant that his sister Siobhan has found to her late brother's music too difficult to bear at times.
It may be two years since Shane's passing, but the pain and grief which his family has been left with has barely subsided.
"It's still very raw for me," Siobhan explained. "I can't listen to Shane's music, and I can't watch him on video or listen to him speak".
One track which Shane MacGowan and The Pogues are of course remembered for is the festive track, 'Fairytale Of New York', which was played across every radio station and in every pub following MacGowan's passing in 2023.
However, as far as Siobhan is concerned, the song does serve as a form of torment.
"You can be a genius, the way you can avoid it [the song]", Siobhan says. "If it's coming on, I just turn it straight off. If I'm in a supermarket, I just block it out, or I go into the loo, or I go outside, or I do something like that, but I have to block it".
She also admitted that she cannot listen to Fairytale Of New York "at all", adding: "It's just pain. Pain in my heart. It's just so painful".
Siobhan also recalled how Shane's disappointment at missing out on Christmas Number One with his collaboration with Kirsty McColl.
"I remember him saying he wouldn't have minded if it had been Michael Jackson that had beaten him," Siobhan reflected. "But he couldn't forgive the Pet Shop Boys. And it was a terrible cover of Always On My Mind! It was dreadful like, so he couldn't forgive that".
Asked of Shane got over this, Siobhan said: "No", before bursting out laughing.
Siobhan was speaking about her brother while sitting along the banks of the Shannon in Dromineer, Co Tipperary, a location which inspired his classic The Broad Majestic Shannon. This is also a place fans have visited as they attempt to seek out places which shaped his music.
Siobhan and Shane's widow, Victoria Mary Clarke have launched Unravelling Shane, a self-guided walking tour in a bid to give some structure to these pathways.
Part of this tour takes us into Nenagh, and more specifically Philly Ryan's pub. Behind the bar is Philly, who also works as an undertaker, a time-honoured Irish fashion.
"Such a shock", Philly said when recalling a phone call from Siobhan after Shane died.
As he sat among endless MacGowan and Pogues memorabilia, Philly feels that Shane would have loved this huge boost to local tourism across the Premier County.
"Shane loved Nenagh," Philly says. "He'd have loved to get that attention onto Nenagh as a gift from Shane MacGowan to people of Nenagh. Nenagh was his town and he loved it dearly".
According to the tourism officer with Destination Lough Derg, Carmel Ormond said that people have been enquiring from all over the world about this walking tour: "We've had requests from places like Serbia, Italy, Germany, America, Japan".
"It's a huge amount of people interested from Japan, from Australia. We've requests from all over the world. We constantly meet people that are rambling around trying to find an area. It has become a huge tourist attraction".
Elsewhere, Siobhan mentioned the St Mary of the Rosary Church, where Shane used to attend Sunday Mass with his mother, which was also the venue for his funeral.
"I danced with my husband and my heart was absolutely breaking," Siobhan recalled. "I danced through it, and I did it for him. It was a dance of defiance against death. I thought, death is not going to stop this song".
As the MacGowan continues to cope with the loss of the festive period, an understandably difficult period.
Despite this, Siobhan said that it has made her appreciate the full gifts that Shane brought as an artist and as a person.
"It was then I realised the huge volume of work and people's reaction to him and his work that, to me, was extraordinary. Like I thought, wow, look at what you did. That's what I said, look at what you did, you know", she added. "It only seems to be getting stronger. His legacy only seems to be getting stronger".
In other news, a new tribute album in honour of Shane MacGowan is to be released soon. More on this here.
