The Funeral For Pogues Singer Shane MacGowan Ended With A Chilling Cover Of ‘Fairytale Of New York’

The funeral for Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, who died last week at 65 years old, was held on Friday at St. Mary’s Of The Rosary Church in (where else?) Ireland. Attendees include Bono, Johnny Depp, and Nick Cave, who performed “A Rainy Night In Soho.” Father John Gilbert called MacGowan “a poet, lyricist, singer, trailblazer” who “reflected life as lived in our time, calling out accepted norms that oftentimes appear unacceptable.”

The most chilling moment of the funeral came when Glen Hansard, of Once fame, and singer-songwriter Lisa O’Neill covered MacGowan’s masterpiece, “Fairytale Of New York.” It provided “a moment for mourners to clap and cheer as they celebrated the singer’s greatest work,” according to Sky News. MacGowan went so far as to call it the Pogues’ “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the boyfriend and boyfriend’s brother of a certain pop star would agree).

You can watch the cover below.

Pogues band member and “Fairytale Of New York” co-writer Jem Finer discussed the song’s origin in a 1988 interview with NME. “I had written two songs complete with tunes,” he said. “One had a good tune and crap lyrics, the other had the idea for ‘Fairytale’ but the tune was poxy, I gave them both to Shane and he gave it a Broadway melody, and there it was.”