The Pogues' legend leaves staggering six-figure fortune after sudden death
The Fairytale of New York hitmaker passed away back in November 2023.
Shane MacGowan has reportedly left nearly £5million in his estate following his unexpected death in November 2023. This is in addition to the £730,000 he had already given to his wife in his Irish will. According to documents obtained by The Sun, the Fairytale of New York hitmaker's UK estate was valued at £4,800,000.
The High Court documents seen by the outlet three years after his death take the combined fortune across both countries to more than £5.5million. His will was uncovered at the Brighton District Probate Registry on Wednesday (September 9), with his widow Victoria Clarke, 59, named as his sole executor.
The two-page will, signed in Dublin on March 14, 2018, was the same will used for the MacGowan's estate in Ireland and covers everything he owned "wheresoever situate". The 65-year-old left his estate to his wife of 30 years, with whom he tied the knot in Copenhagen eight months after he signed his will.
The document was drawn up before their nuptials and still describes her as "my partner". His sister, novelist Siobhan MacGowan, was named to inherit everything if Victoria died before him.
Also listed in the document are his brother-in-law, Anthony Hayes, and Victoria's nephew, Olan Clarke. His Irish will, released in 2024, documented everything in his home country, where his estate was worth €849,733 (£730,000), which also went to Victoria.
The Irish hitmaker passed away from pneumonia at the couple's family home in Dublin in November 2023, plunging the music industry into heartbreak. One of Shane's main sources of income was through royalties from his 1987 duet with the late Kirsty MacColl.
The track came about after a bet that MacGowan, who was born on Christmas Day, couldn't write a Christmas hit, which is said to have earned him up to £250,000 a year. It never topped the UK singles chart, but has successfully re-entered the Top 40 every December for the past two decades.
The musician was born in Pembury, Kent, in 1957, to Irish parents visiting relatives in England, and spent much of his childhood with his mother's family in Tipperary. He formed The Pogues in London in 1982 alongside Jem Finer, Spider Stacey, and James Fearnley.
The band produced chart-topping classics such as Dirty Old Town, A Rainy Night in Soho, and A Pair of Brown Eyes before MacGowan was sacked in 1991 when his drinking issues spiralled out of control.
In the lead-up to his death, MacGowan had been in and out of the hospital for months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis. Thousands of fans lined the streets of Dublin for his funeral procession, singing his songs as a horse-drawn hearse carried his coffin through the city.
