‘My son is called after Shane’ — Dublin fans travel to Tipperary for Shane MacGowan tour
Visitors are travelling from across Ireland and as far away as America to north Tipperary to follow in the footsteps of legendary Irish singer Shane MacGowan, exploring the places that helped inspire some of his best-known songs.
Two such tourists who made the trip to Tipperary to take the tour were Mary Meara and Terry Meehan, who came all the way from Dublin.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, the pair said that they came to Tipperary especially for the tour, having never visited Nenagh before.
Mr Meehan said that he has been a fan of Shane and his band, The Pogues, for many years, having seen them play one of their first Dublin gigs in the Francis Xavier Hall.
The mural of Shane MacGowan in Nenagh. © Katie O’Donovan
“My son is called after Shane,” Mr Meehan said.
“We just came for the tour, we had hoped to do more but it’s just a day trip for us,” Ms Meara added.
Despite being born in England, the former Pogues frontman, who died in 2023, considered Tipperary his home, spending summers in his mother’s homeland of Carney, and playing gigs in pubs across north Tipperary.
Now, a new tour dedicated to the life of the popular musician is aiming to showcase the county’s history of MacGowan, and show off the places that inspired some of his songs, as well as bringing tourists to the county, supported by Tipperary County Council.
While Ms Meara said her family hail from Roscrea, she had never been in Nenagh before, and was inspired to book a spot on the tour after seeing it on TV.
“I’ve been to Roscrea umpteen times, but I’ve probably never been in Nenagh, but it was good to see it,” she said.
District administrator of the Nenagh Municipal District, Rosemary Joyce, says that interest in the tour has been huge since it began, with people travelling from as far away as America to come to Tipperary specifically for the tour.
She added that Nenagh Tourist Office have sent brochures for the tour to countries all over the world, showing the impact and interest that Mr MacGowan still has.
The tour starts in Nenagh’s tourist office with a short presentation about Shane MacGowan’s life and connections to the area by tour guide Michael Molamphy.
The tour then takes the MacGowan and Lynch homeland in Carney, the Cross of Finnoe — which is referenced in MacGowan’s song The Broad Majestic Shannon — as well as Cloughprior Cemetery, where a number of Shane’s relatives are buried.
The tour also stops off at pubs the singer would have frequented and played music, with publicans recounting their stories and memories of him.
While much of Shane’s life was spent in London, he always made time to visit Tipperary whenever he could, once saying that “I will stay here for the rest of my life”.
“This has always been my home,” he added. “How ever far I wander, this is where I belong.”
During the tour, Mr Molamphy tells attendees that the house where Shane stayed on his visits to Tipperary was a very full one, with upwards of 10 people living in the single-storey cottage at any one time.
The cottage was also widely known as a hotbed for music, song and dance, and the door was often open for musicians and dancers who took part in music sessions there.
The sessions always ended with a rosary, Mr Molamphy said, with the Lynch family being very religious.
One particular song that features Tipperary heavily is The Broad Majestic Shannon, with Mr Molamphy explaining that Shane and his sister Siobhán used to run out of the house when the rosary was said, hiding behind a wall on the property.
This, Mr Molamphy said, inspired the lines of the song “found a rusty tin can and an old hurley ball / Heard the cards being dealt and the rosary called / And a fiddle playing Sean Dún na Gall”.
While the home itself isn’t currently on the tour, tour attendees are given a real sense of Mr MacGowan’s love for the county.
For Ms Meara and Mr Meehan, the tour is a look into the life of a man who inspired generations of Irish music.
The Cross at Finnoe. © Katie O’Donovan.
“I would have family in England, and I lived in England, so when you come back to can hear the influence,” Mr Meehan said.
“His influence on Irish music today is is fantastic, his infulence on Irish bands, the likes of the Mary Wallopers, Madra Salach, they’re all going for it,” he added.
Music is carefully interwoven into the tour, with guide Michael Molamphy playing a selection of The Pogues and Shane MacGowan songs at different places along the journey, as well as on the bus.
The Broad Majestic Shannon comes up again on the tour, when stopped at the Cross of Finoe, which would have been the halfway point between Shane’s adopted home, and the town of Borrisokane, where he would take part in music sessions.
The crossroads is mentioned in the song, with the lines “I sat for a while at the cross at Finnoe / Where young lovers would meet when the flowers were in bloom”.
But, Mr Molamphy said, the Tipperary influence can be seen in a number of his songs, including in The Sickbed of Cuchulainn, which mentions Cloughprior Cemetery.
Another mural in Nenagh inspired by The Broad Majestic Shannon. © Katie O’Donovan
For Mr Meehan, three main Shane MacGowan songs have stuck with him over the years.
“The three main songs for me would be A Pair of Brown Eyes — it was sung at my wedding — A Rainy Night in Soho, which we actually sang at the funeral of a friend of ours, and of course, everyone knows Fairytale of New York,” he said.
Remembering The Pogues gigs, Mr Meehan said they were “wild”.
“They were really wild, they were not just normal gigs. They were punk and Irish trad, they were full on,” he explained.
Ms Meara said that the fact that the tour was so varied was a highlight, and that she enjoyed getting to see Shane’s homeland of Carney.
Ms Meara and Mr Meehan weren’t the only people to travel for the tour though, as there were a number of people from Cork, as well as other parts of Ireland. The tour also attracts locals who want to learn more about the life of Shane MacGowan.
Tours take place on Saturday mornings, setting off from the tourist office in the north Tipperary town. The tour takes around four hours, with refreshments served at Johnny Ryan’s pub in Carney at the halfway point of the tour.
For those who don’t want the guided tour option, you can also do all, or part of the tour on your own, with a map of the key spots available on the Unravelling Shane MacGowan Tour website.
For Ms Meara and Mr Meehan, the passion that both Mr Molamphy and Ms Joyce have for Nenagh and the tour shines through.
“The tour guides were really good, they’re really passionate about Shane. It’s based on people’s experiences, which is great,” they said.
Ms Meara added: “You kind of knew his songs were influenced by him coming back to Tipperary, but it’s incredible that it was so rooted in all his experiences.”