Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

From left to right, actor Woody Harrelson, Shane MacGowan, and musician Paul Simon

Music icon Paul Simon got on the phone to Liveline to pay tribute to his friend Shane MacGowan

The acclaimed singer-songwriter today remembered his ‘charismatic friend’ Shane MacGowan.

LEGENDARY MUSICIAN PAUL Simon has paid tribute to his friend Shane MacGowan after his death yesterday at the age of 65.

The Pogues issued a statement on X, formerly Twitter, confirming their former singer died at 3am yesterday morning with his wife and family by his side.

Paul Simon spoke to RTÉ’s Liveline over the phone from Manhattan about his relationship with MacGowan, revealing how they met in Dublin after a concert Simon performed at.

Simon had invited him to the concert and afterwards asked if MacGowan would like to meet him.

“I already liked what I heard of him,” said Simon. “It was a very striking day in my life when I met him.”

Simon said that MacGowan was often “insightful” during their conversations and spoke about the letters they would send to each other.

Simon read from one letter, which he had since framed, which was penned after Simon gifted MacGowan a set of speakers.

“Thanks for the friendly visit, it was great, and thanks for the lovely speaker, it has made a great difference to our listening pleasure,” wrote MacGowan.

Simon said the pair had been friends for over a decade and he introduced MacGowan to his children the last time he was in Dublin.

Simon said they would speak about the poet Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize awardee for literature, but that most of their conversations revolved around music.

“He liked to laugh,” added Simon of MacGowan.

He told Liveline that Shane’s wife Victoria had been keeping him up to date on MacGowan’s health and revealed that the pair were due to perform a duet, but a health-related incident meant MacGowan wasn’t able for this.

Simon said he “wished he had known” MacGowan for longer and described him as “charismatic” and as his “vision of what Ireland was at a certain point”.

Simon added that he feels he has a “strong connection” with Ireland and that he’s “sorry” he’s never lived here.

Reflecting on MacGowan’s passing, Simon said MacGowan was the type of “artist who needed to burn very, very brightly and intensely”.

“They produce work that we treasure, but they pay for it with their health, and that was Shane.”

Simon also spoke about his own future in music, saying he “has no plans to perform anywhere” and that he just takes it “one step at a time”.

He added that he might do half-hour gigs for philanthropic reasons in the future.

Simon spoke about his experience of Long-Covid and said he has “taste issues” and has been “beat up and battered around in the last year and a half”.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
18 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor Loney
    Favourite Conor Loney
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:26 PM

    Are charges ever brought against these drivers?
    Licence points?
    Fines?

    Almost every week I get delayed on the Dart due to a bridge strike and it affects 100′s of other commuters too. I would like to know that something is being done.

    143
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Roy Dowling
    Favourite Roy Dowling
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:29 PM

    @Conor Loney: And who takes the blame when the bridge height is lower than than what the sign says?

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aidan Martin
    Favourite Aidan Martin
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:57 PM

    @Roy Dowling: what bridge is out there thats lower than the sign says .because if thats the case, if you hit the bridge with the right height vehicle for that bridge you could sue the ass off the company

    54
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dr Richard DeWitt
    Favourite Dr Richard DeWitt
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:59 PM

    @Roy Dowling: The council engineer who actually measured it in the first place with a steel measuring tape is whipped in his underwear with the aforementioned offending tape until he admits wrongdoing, and then he is forced to wear a sandwich board saying “I am a mathematically illiterate idiot” for a week on the platform of the station.

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conor Loney
    Favourite Conor Loney
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:00 PM

    @Roy Dowling:

    Surely you have evidence of this?

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gus Sheridan
    Favourite Gus Sheridan
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:04 PM

    @Conor Loney: he was that engineer!

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Murphy
    Favourite Peter Murphy
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 3:35 PM

    @Roy Dowling: don’t think that happens very often

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clancy
    Favourite Clancy
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:30 PM

    Laser level on bridge that sets off banks of red flashing lights when a high vehicle approaches.

    58
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ryan Carroll
    Favourite Ryan Carroll
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:43 PM

    @Clancy: Belay that competence! Such logical suggestions would never get past SIPTU

    “er ouar membars are bein asked to perferm duties dat are outside der contract dere now, so derz gonna have te be an allowance written inte de contract for dah, or else we’ll strike”

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brown Boots
    Favourite Brown Boots
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:59 PM

    @Ryan Carroll: your SIPTU is coming along excellently, though I note you failed to use the % increase phrase. Good work all the same, keep it up and you’ll have many a free dinner ahead.

    33
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael O'Neill
    Favourite Michael O'Neill
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:53 PM

    @Brown Boots: He could throw in a few more “comrades” too.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Viking
    Favourite The Viking
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:51 PM

    Surely a type of say limbo bar of same height should be placed on aproach to such bridges. ( as in a fixed bar. Not one that will fall down if truck strkes it. ) Exactly like the ones as you enter some car parks to stop caravans and the likes entering.

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brown Boots
    Favourite Brown Boots
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:01 PM

    @The Viking: but you’d have lads limbo-ing under on the way home from the pub. Also boss, why bring our heritage into it!

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dr Richard DeWitt
    Favourite Dr Richard DeWitt
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:03 PM

    @The Viking: I’m afraid you’re very much mistaken. Those bars are not to stop caravans from entering, since such measures would be discriminatory against a minority population in this country. What they are actually are bars for breeding crows to hang out on and find a mate for the breeding season. Although I believe starlings have been know to use them from time to time too – cheeky little monkeys.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Emmet Dillane
    Favourite Emmet Dillane
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 12:24 PM

    Surprised someone hasn’t yet developed an APP to warn drivers they’re approaching a non negotiable bridge.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Conlon
    Favourite Joe Conlon
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:00 PM

    @Emmet Dillane: They have, it’s called eyesight!

    60
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dr Richard DeWitt
    Favourite Dr Richard DeWitt
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:00 PM

    @Emmet Dillane: They have – they’re called road signs. You should keep an eye out for them – they big and yellow and shaped like a diamond.

    32
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Allen
    Favourite Nick Allen
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:31 PM

    @Emmet Dillane:

    And would the APP be installed on a phone. And what happens if the driver changes vehicle to one which is higher. Onus on the person to change the App setting? If they forget to do this would this create a new problem in which drivers rely on an APP and ignore the road signs? Possible creating more collisions with bridges

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Emmet Dillane
    Favourite Emmet Dillane
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 4:36 PM

    @Nick Allen:
    All perfectly manageable Nick.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Allen
    Favourite Nick Allen
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 6:18 PM

    @Emmet Dillane:

    Nearly as manageable as getting the driver to read the height sign on every bridge in the country. Should there be an APP for all street signs and should we remove them all?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute winston smith
    Favourite winston smith
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:17 PM

    This subject is brought up regularly on the Journal after each bridge hit and the bars the same height as the bridge and so many meters from each side are usually suggested so why don’t they get the finger out and implement this cheap solution.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Allen
    Favourite Nick Allen
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:27 PM

    @winston smith:

    Cheap solution?

    How many bridges in Ireland?
    Design of said structure?
    Cost of manufacture?
    Are they vandal proof?
    Cost of installation?
    Ongoing maintenance and replacement?
    Update rules of road
    Update driving theory test
    Update driving test

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 1:29 PM

    A train is delayed and this is national news?? LOL!

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Allen
    Favourite Nick Allen
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 2:03 PM

    @Kieran Conroy:

    The journal is a web APP so technically this is global news as opposed to national

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Jennings
    Favourite Paul Jennings
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 2:48 PM

    “We could be lifted, lifted, lifted. Oh, we could be lifted…” (Lighthouse Family.)
    …sighed the bridge.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute sue
    Favourite sue
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 5:21 PM

    It really is ridiculous the amount of times the trains are delayed due to bridge strike. I would have thought every truck driver should be well aware of height restrictions on their route. I had something pointed out to me recently though which I never really noticed. In a lot of cases by the time you see the height of the bridge it is too late. After it was pointed out to me I kept an eye open as well and did notice that in some cases you will only see the height of the bridge ON the actual bridge but not before and then there is no way around. We do have a hell of a lot of bridges and I cannot understand why there is no driving app out there which truck drivers can use to calculate the route and which takes into account low bridges and roads with weight restrictions

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Jennings
    Favourite Paul Jennings
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 5:53 PM

    @sue: bridge strike…train strike… what’s the difference?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Richard Doheny
    Favourite Richard Doheny
    Report
    Sep 13th 2017, 3:27 AM

    I interviewed one of the chiefs in the NRA many year ago as part of a Uni dissertation that I was doing for on bridge management in Ireland, and One of the issue here is that nobody ( Gov depts) wants to manage these existing Bridges because they don’t have the budget to do so. Also there is a debate on who should manage the bridge, whether it is Irish Rail, Local Council or NRA or Waterways Ireland. Political debates as usual.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute oliverjumelle
    Favourite oliverjumelle
    Report
    Sep 12th 2017, 6:24 PM

    Use tunnel safety technology

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds