Shane MacGowan put €10,000 behind the bar for his wake

The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan’s wake was hosted at a tiny Irish pub last week where he was said to have made sure that €10k was put behind the bar to pay for everyone’s beer.

According to reports, MacGowan’s last wish was that his friends should have a marathon drunken night on him, so involved him putting the money behind the bar of The Thatched Cottage in Nenagh in County Tipperary.

MacGowan died from pneumonia aged 65 after months of ill health. Former drinking partners told The Independent they were in Tipperary for his funeral and wake: “I know the pub they are going to for the meal after there has already been €10,000 handed over the counter for free beer – it was Shane’s last request.”

The paper stated that The Thatched Cottage, which is three miles out of Nenagh, hosted MacGowan’s invite-only VIP wake and, although it was not known who footed the bar tab, dozens of mourners had revealed that it had been funded by MacGowan’s estate.

Guests were said to have needed to be sporting concert style passes and lanyards to get into the rural Irish pub, which had its doors guarded by bouncers.

Mourners who drank inside the pub from 6pm to dawn included Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Pogues bandmates along with singer Glen Hansard who reportedly played The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York inside the bar just as he had at the funeral a few hours prior.

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