Shane MacGowan died in November 2023.RIP.ie
The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan left a €5.8 million fortune to his widow, with "Fairytale of New York" royalties still rolling in, Extra.ie has learned.
The singer, who passed away from pneumonia, had his fortune valued at roughly €5.6 million once probate was finalised, on top of the €850,000 he had already left Victoria under a separate will drawn up in Ireland. Combined, his total estate is understood to be worth more than €6.4 million.
Victoria, 59, was named as sole executor when the will was read at Brighton’s District Probate Registry. Had she died before her husband, the estate would instead have passed to his novelist sister, Siobhan MacGowan, 63.
The will itself was signed in Dublin back in March 2018 and was also used to settle Shane’s affairs in Ireland, where his assets similarly transferred to his widow.
The couple married in Copenhagen just eight months after signing the document, and the will described Victoria as his ‘partner.'
Shane MacGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke in 2007. (RollingNews.ie)
A significant chunk of Shane’s wealth came from royalties tied to his most enduring hit: "Fairytale of New York," the raucous Christmas duet he wrote with fellow Pogue Jem Finer and recorded with English singer Kirsty MacColl in 1987.
Legend has it the song began life as a bet that the pair couldn’t write a Christmas tune that wasn’t overly sentimental, and nearly four decades on, it’s still earning handsomely, with one 2021 estimate putting its annual royalties at around €465,000.
Remarkably, the song has never actually topped the UK charts. It peaked at number two in 1987 behind the Pet Shop Boys, and reached only number six even after a renewed push in 2023 following Shane’s death.
That campaign was fuelled by a wave of public tributes, coming just weeks before the anniversary of Kirsty MacColl’s own death in a boating accident in December 2000.
Despite never claiming the top spot, "Fairytale of New York" remains a perennial favourite, regularly voted Ireland and Britain’s best-loved Christmas song.
Music copyright lawyer Brad Banias has previously estimated that royalties could top €580,000 should the track ever finally reach number one, a prize that, for now, continues to elude one of Irish music’s most cherished exports.
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.