Promotion is 'full steam ahead' for North Tipp's Shane MacGowan Trail!

Promotion and development is “full steam ahead” for the Shane MacGowan Trail, a recent meeting of Nenagh Municipal District was told.

Rosemary Joyce, Senior Executive Officer in the Council, told the Councillors that Nenagh MD and Nenagh Tourist Office are collaborating with the local committee and the Destination Lough Derg Tourism Officer, Carmel Ormond, on the development and promotion of the Trail.

“There's a lot of work going on at the moment,” said Ms Joyce. “There's a huge amount of interest in the Trail. We have received a very large number of emails from people living abroad, enquiring about Shane MacGowan and the places of interest associated with him. We have received emails from people living in thirty countries. We are also getting a significant number of requests for brochures in Nenagh Tourist Office. We have given a thousand brochures to the Tourist Office.”

She pointed out that QR codes are currently in the course of being set up by the Municipal District at the various locations on the trail. These link to a website www.unravellingshane.com which gives details of the various points of interest.

She said Nationwide will be filming in February about the Trail with a view to having a programme shown around St. Patrick’s Day. The Trail has received publicity in a number of very large media outlets, including Sky News and the Irish Independent. “It is also enjoying a lot of traction on social media.”

Discussions are on-going in relation to signage and other appropriate commemorative items at some of the locations, such as the Cross of Finnoe. “We are also looking at the possibility of having Guided Tours as well as the self-guided, QR assisted tours.”

Ms Joyce praised the locals who are “doing an awful lot of work, especially those living in the Kilbarron area.”

Cllr Phyll Bugler, Cathaoirleach, said Shane's mother Therese MacGowan lived in the village of Silvermines. Therese was a well-known local figure and a singer herself, who was deeply involved in the local music scene.There are recollections of Therese and Shane singing "Fairytale of New York" together in Hickey's Pub in Silvermines years before her passing. Therese was credited by Shane as a major musical influence, having passed on a love for traditional Irish music.

Fans of the former Pogues frontman have been flocking to North Tipperary since the singer's death to pay tribute to him and visit first-hand the areas that inspired him and his music.

The Shane MacGowan Trail, also called “Unravelling – The Shane MacGowan Tour”, was officially launched last September, giving the fans an opportunity to pinpoint his roots.

At September's launch Shane's sister Siobhan MacGowan said his passion for the North Tipperary countryside where he grew up as a child “influenced everything he would go on to do and write”. She said Nenagh and North Tipperary were the places “he felt both the most longing for and most belonging to. The places on this trail were ingrained in his psyche and remained at his heart’s core for all of his life. Literally his heart’s song, and at the heart of so many he would go on to sing.”

The Pogues frontman died on November 30, 2023, following a long illness. His funeral was celebrated in Nenagh Town where he spent much of his youth with his sister.

The Trail covers 11 different locations around the shores of Lough Derg, and is a celebration of all the places in the county that were “dear and special to Shane”. A brochure featuring rare family photos, Shane’s childhood sketches and snippets of notes never seen before, as well as a map outlining why each place is special, has also been produced and can be downloaded by fans.

The trail includes stops in Carney, Kilbarron, Nenagh, Borrisokane, and along the Shannon, as well as smaller villages and boreens that featured in his early years. It includes Kennedy's pub in Puckaun, where The Pogues played a famous Twelfth Night 1986 gig with Shane’s family taking to the stage.

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