Shane MacGowan: Tribute album gave mourning wife purpose

David Keenan, a singer-songwriter from Dundalk, whose thoughtful lyrics and intense live performances invoke something of MacGowan himself, told BBC News NI he was honoured to be asked to add to the album.

“Fairytale of New York is as old as Christmas for me,” said David.

But his epiphany moment came when an uncle gave him The Pogues’ third album.

At 11 years old, Keenan said If I Should Fall from Grace with God “lit a flame” inside him.

“Up ’til that point it was just chart music.

“That (album) was the first time I heard all these references to mythology and drink and rebellion and, you know, heartache.

“And poetry, proper poetry.”

The Louth man described it like an awakening.

“It gave me permission as a kid to get stuck into real lyric writing. And to do it in the traditional and folk form.”

On 20th Century Paddy, Keenan covered Sick Bed of Cúchulainn – a celtic punk ballad from their 1985 album Rum Sodomy and the Lash, the central allusion of which is the mythical Irish warrior Cúchulainn.

This has real significance for Keenan, who as a child in Louth used to play near the standing stone (Clochafarmore) where Cuchulainn was said to have been killed.

And the circularity didn’t stop there.

He did his recording of the song in Drumlish, County Longford, where he said “Shane used to record too”.

“It was just was surreal and at the same time perfect, you know.”