The Fairytale of Tanya McCole: 'It was a true honour to sing with Shane MacGowan'

On the day of Shane MacGowan’s passing, Ardara singer-songwriter Tanya McCole recalls how she famously duetted on the immortal ‘Fairytale of New York’.

In 2013, Sharon Shannon invited Tanya - a talented and well-travelled singer-songwriter from Ardara  - on her tour of Ireland to perform alongside MacGowan, the lead singer of the internationally acclaimed Pogues.

“I used to live in Galway and I knew Sharon Shannon,” Tanya tells DonegalLive. “I got a call from Sharon, who said that they were going to do a tour with Shane MacGowan starting Monday and asked me to come on the tour and sing with Shane and herself.

“At first, I was quite intimidated to meet Shane as I had been such a big fan of his music for years, it was a great opportunity.

“We did the Irish tour and at first we were gigging in Donegal Town, then, on New Year’s Eve we ended up in the Gleneagle INEC Arena in Killarney, which was a fantastic gig with a big crowd and it was great fun.

“It was special to hear thousands of people singing Shane’s words back to him, he had a cheeky smile on his face that evening.”

Tanya recalls performing with MacGowan four times during that 2013 tour, filling in for the late Kirsty MacColl, who tragically died in 2000 having been struck by a powerboat.

“We always performed ‘Fairytale of New York’ together,” Tanya adds.”It was a Christmas tour, so they needed a female singer to fill in for Kirsty. Shane grabbed me and waltzed me around the stage, laughing hysterically in my ear - it was really funny and really special.”

The Pogues performed their last gig as a band in 2014 but MacGowan performed a few solo gigs afterwards and even after his passing, his legendary voice will live on, even more so in the lead-up to Christmas.

“I would have been one of the last women that Shane performed ‘Fairytale of New York’ with,” Tanya adds. “He was not the kind of guy that would hold court. He was always surrounded by his gang, you had to pick and choose your moments to sit down and talk to Shane. He listened and looked a lot, he may even tell a few stories.”

“He was a real gentleman, a sweet guy with the ladies, where he would take their hand and give them a kiss on the hand.”

“It was an honour to share the stage with one of Ireland’s greatest wordsmiths, one of the world’s greatest wordsmiths I should say, as he has touched so many people around the world. It was a true honour for me to be able to sing with Shane MacGowan. It was a memory I will hold very dear to my heart.”