The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York is one of the great Christmas songs. It’s an unusual Christmas song – the meat of the song is the drunken quarrel of a down-and-out couple in a New York Police holding cell on Christmas Eve – but Shane MacGowan was no ordinary songwriter, singer, or frontman. Few would have predicted that Shane O’Hooligan, as young MacGowan styled himself on the London punk scene, would grow to be revered as one of the finest and most poetic songwriters of his time.
Fewer would have bet that MacGowan would be embraced as an Irish folk icon and national treasure. In the heyday of The Pogues, the band was criticized as London Irish interlopers playing to the drunken-Irish stereotype while lacking an authentic connection to Irish culture. The success of Fairytale of NY, which led to a collaboration EP with The Dubliners, started the reappraisal, but it took a few years to set in. This is Glen Hansard performing Fairytale at Shane’s sad and glorious funeral.
Glen Hansard is the long-standing frontman of the Irish band The Frames. He acted as Outspan Foster (the guitarist) in the movie The Commitments (1991). In the 2000s, Glen was half of the duo The Swell Season. He’s also had solo success. Glen Hansard was joined by Lisa O’Neill, singing Kirsty MacColl’s parts, when he led the performance of Fairytale of New York at Shane’s December 2023 funeral. Shane’s wife, Victoria, and sister, Siobhan, famously danced in the aisle. It was a rake for Shane!
The chorus that helped Glen raise the roof of St Mary’s of the Rosary Catholic Church, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, included Pogues Jem Finer, Spider Stacy, James Fearnley, Terry Woods, and Cait O’Riordan. The next video also sees Glen Hansard in an Irish Church in December. It’s the Frames playing Fitzcarraldo at a 2022 benefit for the Dublin homeless in the historic St Patrick’s Church. It’s a passionate performance that showcases The Frames and helps show why Glen featured at Shane’s funeral.
Glen Hansard and his Swell Season partner Markéta Irglová played street-busking musicians in the romantic Irish movie Once (2007) and won the Best Song Oscar for Falling Slowly from the movie’s soundtrack. After the official video for Falling Slowly, the Music Man has a final, special Glen Hansard video to play out with. It’s a video selected for Pogues’ fans who still aren’t quite sure why Glen Hansard led the playing of The Pogues’ most well-known song at Shane’s funeral. Don’t go away! First, then, this is Glen and Markéta Irglová with the Oscar-winning Falling Slowly.
https://youtu.be/CffkSvcTmgQ.
Our promised final Glen Hansard video is an epic, rousing cover of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young from December 2021. Recorded in the shadow of the pandemic (see the mask in the opening shot), this “The Busk” performance (in support of the Dublin Simon Community and highlighting the issues of homelessness) brings the craic to a Covid-empty St. Patrick’s Church. Enjoy.
If you would like to hear more from Glen Hansard, you can subscribe to his YouTube Channel for more incredible music. You can also follow him on Facebook and visit his website for more updates and information.