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Shane MacGowan's Funeral Service: Music by Nick Cave and Prayer with Bob Geldof
Photo: Karen Cox / REUTERS
With a large funeral procession and a moving ceremony, the Irish paid their last respects to singer Shane MacGowan. The coffin of the frontman of the Irish-English folk-punk band The Pogues, who died at the age of 65, was first pulled by four horses through the capital Dublin, behind it and on the side of the road a large crowd of people gathered. The funeral service that followed was attended by Hollywood star Johnny Depp and singer Nick Cave, among others.
Thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin to bid farewell to MacGowan. They applauded as the carriage carrying the coffin passed theirs while musicians played MacGowan's best-known songs.
At the end of the funeral ceremonies, a ceremony with Irish songs took place in a church in Nenagh in the west of the country. Nick Cave played a version of the Pogues song "A Rainy Night in Soho" during the service. When Pogues' hit "Fairytale of New York" was played, the mourners began to dance. "Shane would have liked that," said his sister, Siobhan MacGowan.
Johnny Depp calls his dead friend "Maestro"
Reverend Pat Gilbert said MacGowan was a "poet, lyricist, singer" and "influenced, encouraged, entertained and touched" everyone he met.
Actor Depp referred to his friend MacGowan as a "maestro" before saying a prayer. Irish singer Bob Geldof also recited a prayer. Irish President Michael D. Higgins was also among the mourners.
MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957 in the southeastern English county of Kent, but had reflected on his Irish roots in his music. He began drinking alcohol as a child. Later, he suffered from the consequences of severe alcohol and drug abuse.
MacGowan had been in a wheelchair since breaking his pelvis in 2015. Earlier this year, it was confirmed that he was suffering from encephalitis, for which he had to be treated in hospital again and again, sometimes in intensive care. He had died by the end of November.
mel/AFP/dpa