Shane MacGowan’s widow reveals she feels connected to his ‘presence’

Shane MacGowan’s widow feels deeply connected to his “presence”.

Victoria Mary Clarke, who married the late Pogues frontman in 2018 after they had spent decades together, opened up about her feeling his spirit is still with her in a long Instagram post.

She said alongside an image she posted of her hugging Shane, who died aged 65 on 30 November after battling a string of health issues including pneumonia: “I just wanted to say thank you (praying hands emoji) for so many beautiful messages of support, I know that each and every one of you has plenty of problems and challenges of your own to be thinking about and you are all so generous and kind and thoughtful and compassionate and I am deeply grateful to you.

“Please take a moment to appreciate yourselves!!!

“Sharing love (red heart emoji) in this world is the most beautiful thing you can do and the most valuable.”

After thanking fans and friends for their support, Victoria said about how she still feels Shane is with her: “I also want you to know that you really don’t need to feel sad for me because @shanemacgowanofficial is still very much with me in every moment and I feel very connected with him and I feel enormous love (red heart emoji) and encouragement from him and I feel his sense of humour and his pure joy (smiling face emoji) and presence as if he is actually a part of me and he is never going to leave me because he is in my heart (red heart emoji) I love that so many of you are celebrating his music and his life and his warmth and compassion and grace and beauty and it is a powerful thing to witness.”

Victoria signed off her post with: “There’s a lot of people that I want to individually thank for making his funeral so special and magical (fairy emoji) and I will probably be doing it for a long time!!!! Bless everyone everywhere always.”

Hard-living Shane, who spent years addicted to drink and drugs, was laid to rest on December 8 in a funeral in the town of Nenagh, County Tipperary, in his native Ireland.

Hours before the service his partner Victoria Mary Clarke revealed his hatred of final farewells.

She said on Instagram: “Tomorrow is Shane’s funeral which is hard to believe and probably I won’t believe it for a while.

“Shane hated funerals and he refused to go to them with a few rare exceptions.”