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Dublin Live
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Dublin Live
Doctors told Shane MacGowan he'd die six months after meeting widow Victoria Mary Clarke
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Shane MacGowan's widow has told how doctors told The Pogues frontman he would die within six months of the pair getting together back in the 1980s. Victoria Mary Clarke and Shane met over 40 years ago, before tying the knot in Copenhagen in 2018. But Victoria was dealt a devastating blow when the Tipperary star passed away in November 2023 at the age of 65 after multiple health complications. However, she admitted she had been preparing since the 80s for his death after many doctors gave the rock star only months to live, even back then. Speaking on The Grief Pod with Venetia Quick, Victoria said: "It was quite often that he would be told he would be dead soon. And that started when we got together. "So starting in the 80s, people told me he'd be dead very soon. I remember, like, pretty much as soon as we got together, somebody said, 'Oh, well, he'll be dead in six months'. "A doctor that we used to go to in London, she told Shane that he would be dead in six months, and she is now dead herself. Well, in fact, two of his doctors are dead, having told Shane that he would be dead. So, you know, it was definitely on my mind a lot, and it was something that I was afraid of very much. "And when I thought about it, I couldn't picture anything but misery. I couldn't picture anything but total despair." Shane died in November 2023 and Victoria opened up about how she has coped with the grief since The Fairytale of New York hitmaker's passing. "There's been plenty of days like that, where I've been phoning the Samaritans and I have fully felt that I wanted to end it all," she explained. But she said she has recently qualified as a sound healer and used the power of sound and meditation to help her cope with grief. "I'm sure anyone who's listening, who's familiar with grief, will notice that it does heighten emotion and it dysregulates the nervous system," she added. "So you're kind of all over the place, and you're panicked, and you haven't got clear thoughts. And you feel very vulnerable. You feel very fragile. "Yeah, you feel like your emotions are running you. You can't really stop them. So there's a lot of turbulence. So it is a bit like being thrown in the sea with a lot of waves crashing around. And then you really have to kind of discipline yourself to remember this is just turbulence, and underneath, at the bottom of the ocean, there is a calm, still place, and I've got to try and get there. "Recently, I just qualified as a sound healer, so I find that sound is one of the most powerful... but also really fast to bring me into a state of total calm, and it's faster than Valium. I've tried Valium and Xanax, and actually using a gong is faster. So I'm doing things like that." But Victoria said she still talks to the 65-year-old every day since his passing, admitting she feels Shane's presence all around her. And she told the host that he is happy in the afterlife, adding: "He's happy, and he does talk to me, and he does tell me many times. He's told me many times, so I'm aware of that, and it does help, because I know that he really, really had a lot of pain and suffering and struggle with his body, so it is a relief for him. He's out of it. "I do tell [talk to] him, and I feel he is there. So I suppose that's one of the things that's maybe in my toolbox in that I have had an interest in the non-physical or the spiritual since I was a kid. "So I started talking to light-beings and fairies and, you know, trees and all these things as a child. And I became interested in channelling in my 20s, and I've been channelling for about 30 years, so sometimes I'll channel people who have been human. Like most of the time, I channel light beings and angels who've never been human. "But now occasionally I'll be channelling people as well. And so I was always aware that if anything happened to one of us, the other one would still be able to communicate with them, because we'd just carry on the conversation like channelling. And, you know, that's not so easy to do with somebody that you're very attached to emotionally. It's much easier to do with somebody you've never met. But with Shane, it's a little bit more, you know, intense, but he's very determined. So he finds every possible opportunity. "He comes through in writing mainly, or he'll just put a thought in my head, or he'll try and, like, dance with me, and he'll, like, move me or he'll send energy to me so I can feel the energy that it's sending. Or he will come through other people. So he comes through psychic mediums that I go to, but he also comes through friends. "You know, a couple of my friends recently have said, 'Oh my god, Shane is bashing me on the shoulder and going tell her this'. And they're like, why is he trying to talk through me?' "And I guess he just will talk through anyone who will listen," she added. But Victoria said she finds it comforting to know he is still around her. "I know that he's aware of me, and I know that he can, like, see me, and if I write to him, I know that he can see and read what I've written, and so that that is good, and it's not the same as your physical person, and it's not the same as feeling them or hearing their voice or any of those things." Victoria also mentioned how her late husband would've enjoyed "the fuss" of his funeral. "It was something that he would have enjoyed, and I know he was enjoying it. I mean, I think he was really, really enjoying the whole thing, all the fuss, because Shane was a guy who really loved people, and he loved to connect with people," she said. And she admitted that MacGowan being a public figure has helped her cope with his death. She said: "I was, in some ways, very fortunate that Shane was a public figure, because it meant that his death was acknowledged. "I think that for anyone listening, who has lost somebody, or is feeling, like, bereft or bereaved, that, you know, when other people do even a small gesture, like, you know, doing a mass card, or a bunch of flowers or whatever it is, I think every gesture helps." Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice . For all the latest news from Dublin and surrounding areas visit our homepage.
Irish Daily Mirror
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Shane MacGowan's widow 'still talks' to singer every day since his death
Shane MacGowan's widow has told how doctors told The Pogues frontman he would die within six months of the pair getting together – back in the 1980s. Victoria Mary Clarke and Shane met over 40 years ago before tying the knot in Copenhagen in 2018. But Victoria was dealt a devastating blow when the Tipperary star passed away in November 2023 at the age of 65 after multiple health complications. However, she admitted she had been preparing since the 80s for his death after many doctors gave the rock star only months to live, even back then. Speaking on The Grief Pod with Venetia Quick, Victoria said: 'It was quite often that he would be told he would be dead soon. And that started when we got together. 'So starting in the 80s, people told me he'd be dead very soon. 'I remember, like, pretty much as soon as we got together, somebody said, 'Oh, well, he'll be dead in six months'. 'A doctor that we used to go to in London, she told Shane that he would be dead in six months, and she is now dead herself. 'Well, in fact, two of his doctors are dead, having told Shane that he would be dead. So, you know, it was definitely on my mind a lot, and it was something that I was afraid of very much. 'And when I thought about it, I couldn't picture anything but misery. I couldn't picture anything but total despair.' Shane died in November 2023 and Victoria opened up about how she has coped with the grief since The Fairytale of New York hitmaker's passing. 'There's been plenty of days like that, where I've been phoning the Samaritans and I have fully felt that I wanted to end it all,' she explained. But she said she has recently qualified as a sound healer and used the power of sound and meditation to help her cope with grief. 'I'm sure anyone who's listening, who's familiar with grief, will notice that it does heighten emotion and it dysregulates the nervous system,' she added. 'So you're kind of all over the place, and you're panicked, and you haven't got clear thoughts. And you feel very vulnerable. You feel very fragile. 'Yeah, you feel like your emotions are running you. You can't really stop them. So there's a lot of turbulence. So it is a bit like being thrown in the sea with a lot of waves crashing around. And then you really have to kind of discipline yourself to remember this is just turbulence, and underneath, at the bottom of the ocean, there is a calm, still place, and I've got to try and get there. 'Recently, I just qualified as a sound healer, so I find that sound is one of the most powerful... but also really fast to bring me into a state of total calm, and it's faster than Valium. 'I've tried Valium and Xanax, and actually using a gong is faster. So I'm doing things like that.' But Victoria said she still talks to the 65-year-old every day since his passing, admitting she feels Shane's presence all around her. And she told the host that he is happy in the afterlife, adding: 'He's happy, and he does talk to me, and he does tell me many times. He's told me many times, so I'm aware of that, and it does help, because I know that he really, really had a lot of pain and suffering and struggle with his body, so it is a relief for him. He's out of it. 'I do tell [talk to] him, and I feel he is there. So I suppose that's one of the things that's maybe in my toolbox in that I have had an interest in the non-physical or the spiritual since I was a kid. 'So I started talking to light-beings and fairies and, you know, trees and all these things as a child. 'And I became interested in channelling in my 20s, and I've been channelling for about 30 years, so sometimes I'll channel people who have been human. Like most of the time, I channel light beings and angels who've never been human. 'But now occasionally I'll be channelling people as well. And so I was always aware that if anything happened to one of us, the other one would still be able to communicate with them, because we'd just carry on the conversation like channelling. 'And, you know, that's not so easy to do with somebody that you're very attached to emotionally. It's much easier to do with somebody you've never met. But with Shane, it's a little bit more, you know, intense, but he's very determined. So he finds every possible opportunity. 'He comes through in writing mainly, or he'll just put a thought in my head, or he'll try and, like, dance with me, and he'll, like, move me or he'll send energy to me so I can feel the energy that it's sending. 'Or he will come through other people. So he comes through psychic mediums that I go to, but he also comes through friends. 'You know, a couple of my friends recently have said, 'Oh my god, Shane is bashing me on the shoulder and going tell her this'. And they're like, why is he trying to talk through me?' 'And I guess he just will talk through anyone who will listen,' she added. But Victoria said she finds it comforting to know he is still around her. 'I know that he's aware of me, and I know that he can, like, see me, and if I write to him, I know that he can see and read what I've written, and so that that is good, and it's not the same as your physical person, and it's not the same as feeling them or hearing their voice or any of those things.' Victoria also mentioned how her late husband would've enjoyed 'the fuss' of his funeral. 'It was something that he would have enjoyed, and I know he was enjoying it. I mean, I think he was really, really enjoying the whole thing, all the fuss, because Shane was a guy who really loved people, and he loved to connect with people,' she said. And she admitted that MacGowan being a public figure has helped her cope with his death. She said: 'I was, in some ways, very fortunate that Shane was a public figure, because it meant that his death was acknowledged. 'I think that for anyone listening, who has lost somebody, or is feeling, like, bereft or bereaved, that, you know, when other people do even a small gesture, like, you know, doing a mass card, or a bunch of flowers or whatever it is, I think every gesture helps.'
Irish Daily Mirror
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Kiera Dignam: 'I was the one that was in denial and trying to avoid reality'
Christy Dignam's daughter felt like a 'double-decker bus was rammed' into her face the day she realised her father was going to die. The Aslan frontman passed away aged 63 on June 13, 2023 after a lengthy battle with cancer. But his only child Kiera Dignam said his loss is still so raw for her and the details of his death were traumatic. Christy was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer called amyloidosis in 2013 and had been in palliative care for a few months before his death. Despite this, Kiera said she was in denial and didn't fully believe her father was dying until a nurse spelt it out. The weekend before his death, the musician had a bad fall at home, and it was then that the family realised he might not have long left. Speaking for the first time on The Grief Pod with Venetia Quick, the Dubliner has recalled the singer's final days. Kiera said: 'Sunday morning my mum rang me, she was up all night with him. 'We went down, we knew this wasn't good. 'I remember Darren [my husband] saying 'When we go down here if he is sick enough that he needs to go into the hospice I'm going to suggest that.' 'But he did not want to die in a hospice or a hospital, so I was saying 'Darren I have to have my dad's back on that. He doesn't want to die in a hospice, I'm not letting him go back'. 'So Darren said, 'Christy, do you think maybe we should go back to the hospice?' So I looked at my dad like, 'We've got this'. And he said, 'Yeah, maybe'. 'I said, 'Are you winding me up? I was about to fight your corner here'. 'But when he said yes, I realised he was defeated then. He was sitting there in the bed, you could see he was in a lot of pain trying to take breaths.' A hospice nurse then called to the home and suggested she use 'a machine' to alleviate his pain. Also known as 'the pump' this is a syringe driver, a battery-operated device, that administers medication continuously via subcutaneous infusion and is commonly used in end-of-life care. Kiera added: 'I say [to her] 'When you say machine, are you saying you're putting my dad on a pump?' 'She said, 'Yes' and I said, 'Hang on a minute, as far as I'm concerned anybody I've ever heard been on the pump that's like days, hours at max. 'This is when I started realising, now hang on a minute. You're trying to kill my dad, he's fine, he just fell. 'She took my hand and pulled me in and said 'Kiera your dad is actively dying'. 'And I swear to God she may as well have gotten a double-decker and rammed it straight into my face. 'I remember it now and I feel sick. I thought my legs were going to buckle. I was standing in the hall and I remember holding on to the bannisters because I was like, 'What am I going to tell my mum and Darren?' 'At the time they knew, I was the one that was in denial and trying to avoid reality. 'In hindsight, I thought he fell and that's essentially why he died but he fell because he was dying.' The family then rallied around to get Kiera's son Cian, 21, who was at a festival in the UK, home. Two days later, Christy passed away surrounded by his family, including grandchildren Cian and Ava. Kiera said his death was traumatic but there was another layer to her grief because he was a public figure. There had also been numerous fake reports of him dying over the years, even before the family announced in January 2023 he was going into palliative care. Kiera recalled: 'It was very, very hard and now it's all in the past it's almost like PTSD because when you are dealing with death it can be very traumatic and I was also taking that aspect on, I can't explain how hard it was. I remember Darren saying, 'Maybe you should work out a statement for when he dies' and I said, 'I don't want to think about that'. 'But he said, 'You need to be realistic, this is something you're going to have to do and when it happens you're not going to be in the headspace to do that. 'So I had to sit and work out how I'm wording his death announcement and he's sitting beside me. That's traumatic, traumatic probably isn't even the word for that.' After Christy's death, this statement was needed much quicker than Kiera had hoped, as the word got out an hour after he died. She said: 'When he did pass away we were sitting with him for a few minutes and we had his music playing, music that he loved. 'We leave the room and I'm standing in the kitchen like what just happened? And Darren said, 'Kiera you're probably going to have to get that statement'. 'I remember taking my phone out, it was in my notes, copying and pasting it and writing out the time and date that he died. 'In an ideal world, he died Tuesday, I was hoping I could announce he died Friday, have the funeral on Saturday and we don't have to deal with the public frenzy.' However, Christy died at 4.03pm and at 5.15pm the word was out. Kiera added: 'We were all in the house, how has this happened? But there were nurses and staff from the hospital and hospices coming back and forth and it got to a receptionist that got to a friend of a friend kind of thing. 'He was only an hour gone and I'm having to share this statement, which I was not prepared for.'
Sunday World
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Rosie O'Donnell hilariously reveals how a woman took her in after getting lost in Dublin
SHOCK SAVIOUR | 'You know Rosie, I wouldn't open the door unless you were on The Late Late Show.' The Rosie O'Donnell Show star said the house owner didn't know her identity, but had recognised her from a recent appearance on The Late Late Show. Rosie was on her way to a podcast interview about her childhood trauma after the tragic loss of her mum when a taxi driver dropped her at the wrong address. When she knocked on the door, a lady in a bathrobe, just out of the shower, answered it. 'She said, 'You look familiar, where do I know you from?'' Rosie reveals. ''I'm an American actress.' 'You were on The Late Late Show, you've got an autistic child.' I said, 'Yes I was.' 'What's your name?' 'Rosie.' 'I'm Jennifer, come on in.'' Rosie with Venetia Quick Jennifer connected Rosie to her wifi and helped her contact radio presenter and podcaster Venetia Quick of The Grief Pod. Before leaving, Rosie advised Jennifer: ''Listen, I just want you to know you shouldn't do this again [let a stranger into her home]. In New York nobody would ever do this. 'She laughed, 'You know Rosie, I wouldn't open the door unless you were on The Late Late Show.' The US celebrity with Donegal ancestry who moved to Ireland after Donald Trump's election to a second term as president, later spoke with Venetia Quick about her Irish connections – and the untimely death of her mother when she was just 11. Rosie says: 'Mum died in 1973… she died on St Patrick's Day the 17th of March and was buried on my birthday, the 21st. 'She was on the parish council at Christ the King, our local Catholic church. A lot of people knew her and it was such a tragic story… a woman with five children at the age of 39 gets diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer and when they opened her up they said there is nothing they can do. 'And so she died shortly thereafter. She went to the hospital and we would go to visit her there and it felt very scary and weird. 'She came home for a while, but right before she died she went back to the hospital and she had to have her friends help her to the car. I remember that and I remember thinking something bad is going to happen. 'And then I saw my dad in the playroom looking out the window and I just said, 'Is Mommy going to die?' And he turned so I couldn't look at any part of his face and put his nose to the corner of the room and said, 'We hope not, honey, we hope not.' 'The next thing everybody was at our house on the 17th, St Patrick's Day, and I remember waking up that morning and thinking, 'well nothing bad can happen today because today's lucky day for the Irish and we are 100 per cent Irish.'' However, Rosie soon learned the devastating news that her beloved mother had died. 'The days that followed after Mother's death were horrifying,' she says. Read more 'I felt like I would wake up at any moment and it was not going to be true. My little brother, Timmy, is five years younger than me and was born the day before me so it was his birthday as well. We both got a lot of gifts and it just felt so wrong. 'My little brother said, 'You have to be the mommy now.' I was the oldest girl, I got to be the mother, and that's what I ended up doing [in her adult life]… I adopted five children and had two foster kids.' Rosie revealed that her father's family were from Donegal, Tyrone and Belfast. Her grandfather was Irish-born but her father was born in America. 'After my mother died he took us back to Donegal and Tyrone and Belfast, where his family was raised,' she says. 'I still have cousins here in Belfast and in Ardglass [Co Down]. And we've been up there a bunch of times to stay with them. It's so lovely having family here and I remember we first met them in 1973, that summer right after my mother died.' Rosie on the Late Late with Patrick Kielty News in 90 seconds - 10th May 2025 Rosie, who has been a staunch critic of Donald Trump for decades, moved to Dublin in January. She says: 'When he got the nomination I said to my therapist, 'I can't survive another four years with him, I know I can't.' She said, 'What's the plan?' And I said I would move to Ireland, it's the only country I would move to, I have family there that we have kept in touch with and I know that I can get citizenship because of my grandparents.' And she said, 'Let's start to make that plan.' Rosie moved here with her 12-year-old non-binary child, Clay, because of the Trump administration's policies. 'I spoke to Clay and said that for trans people and trans kids and gay people it's [America] is not a safe place to be. And for women, they've taken away our rights that I remember fighting for in the early '70s.' Although she misses her family who still live in the US, O'Donnell says she has no regrets about leaving America. 'Clay is very happy here,' she says. 'Clay has autism and supports are being taken away in America.' Although Rosie's friends were surprised she left America for Ireland, she points out that she quit her TV show at the height of its success. 'I made crazy, insane money, the kind of money if you made it for one year you'd never have to work again… and I did it for six years,' she adds.
Irish Daily Mirror
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Rosie O'Donnell admits its 'hard' to call her non-binary child they/them
Rosie O'Donnell admits it's hard for her to use neutral pronouns for her non-binary child, as she fled from the US to Ireland to protect them. Last month, the Hollywood actress moved here to Dublin with her youngest child Clay, 12, and is in the process of getting Irish citizenship. The 63-year-old leaves behind four adult children in the US. The Sleepless in Seattle actress said she had no other option but to flee Donald Trump's America, as Clay in autistic and non-binary. Speaking to The Grief Pod with Venetia Quick, Rosie said: 'My daughter is graduating from college in May, I won't be able to go. But, I had no option. I knew I had no choice. And my friends didn't know because I don't know that they all have such incapacitatingly big feelings.' The actress and President Trump have had a long-standing feud spanning 20 years. But it's his policies against minority communities that made Rosie realise she needed to jump ship. She continued: 'When all these celebrities said 'When he wins I move', I never said that. 'But when he got the nomination I said to my therapist 'I can't survive another four years with him, I know I can't'. And I said I would move to Ireland. It's the only country I would move to, I have family here that we had kept in touch with and I know I can get citizenship because of my grandparents living here.' Before putting the wheels in motion to move, the A-lister spoke to her youngest child Clay. She said: 'I said (to them) this is a very dangerous situation in America now. And for trans people and trans kids and gay people, it's not a safe place to be. 'She has such resilience and strength and the day after the election she walked into her class and said 'Well, I'm moving to Ireland'. They said 'Why?' And she said because the president hates my mom, but she hates him just as much. 'For women, they have taken away our rights that I remember fighting for in the early 70s. It's like the Handmaid's Tale and I know enough about history to know what comes next. And I also knew about Trump's cruelty first hand.' While Rosie is very supportive of her 12-year-old, she admitted that using neutral pronouns is difficult, and slipped up several times during her chat with Venetia. She explained: 'It's so hard for me, I had it tattooed on my wrist in her handwriting so that I would remember to say it and whenever I say 'she' they say 'Your tattoo isn't working'. 'I try my hardest, it's very difficult to do. Not that it should give anyone the reason not to try, to totally ignore what someone's perceived identity is, how dare you say they can't be referred to this way.' After her child came out as non-binary, the Hollywood actress called them their old name, Dakota, for a year, until she was ready to make the change. Rosie said: 'It's been Clay ever since, and it was easier for me to do than the pronoun because I look at her…them, and I see Clay now, I don't see Dakota still. 'Who knows where it's going to go or what it's going to lead to. Kids who are autistic often have gender issues and body dysmorphia.'
