Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan

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Shane MacGowan:

Woman: Why would God do that?

Shane:

Shane:

Woman: Did you ever believe in Santa Claus?

Shane:

Woman: Is that how you see yourself now, as a cult figure?

Shane:

Woman: Once we've wrapped up filming, we'll put...

Woman: Now?

Woman: Okay.

Woman: Okay, okay.

Shane:

Man: Get out there.

Woman: Shane always wore a cap when he was here.

So the cap was the first thing to go on

because all the men wore caps.

Shane:

Man: I'm glad to see you, first of all.

Man: Yeah, yeah.

Man: Yeah. Absolutely.

You're hanging in.

I was going to recall the first time that we met.

In London.

Gerry Adams: We were traveling to Downing Street

to do negotiations with Tony Blair and his people.

Our negotiating team needed somewhere to meet,

and Gerry O'Boyle very kindly lent us

a back room in Filthy McNasty's.

You were there one morning.

I was there with Martin McGuinness.

But I remember telling you that we were going to see Blur.

Shane:

And you said to me, "Tell him, 'Tiocfaidh ár lá'."

Right? Which I did.

Man: Tiocfaidh ár lá.

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And he said to me, he would never look

at The Pogues... the same again.

What was the song that you wrote about the Great Hunger?

The song tells the story of the people

who died of starvation.

[Ronnie Drew singing "The Dunes"]

Shane:

Yeah.

Not so bad, Father.

Right muck.

Woman: Shane, for Christ's sake! Not again! Get in now!

Shane:

Gerry: A lot of people died here in the Great Hunger.

The population was halved.

A lot of people were forced to leave.

And a lot of people died in the coffin ships

- traveling to America. -

I try not to use the term "the famine"

because, of course, it wasn't a famine.

They were still exporting

food from Ireland at the time when people were dying.

Gerry: Absolutely.

That's why the English came here.

Shane:

So that's me with the boys...

Woman: He absorbed all that wonderful,

traditional Irish music

and singing and dancing through his pores

when he was at a very formative age.

Shane:

He was hopped out of it.

Man: I'm gonna moisten my glass.

How are you, you good?

Shane:

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Man: You're all Gaelic geese of Gaelic lineage.

Shane:

Man: A pint of plain is your only man...

Woman: Leave nothing undrunk.

Shane:

- -

Johnny Depp: Fuckin' horribly loud. Sorry about that.

I'd like to invite any detractor,

anyone who would dare say,

"Shane's memory, he's got no fuckin' memory,

fuckin' drinkin', fuckin'..."

I challenge them all.

If you're ever back into Pirates,

if he doesn't fuckin' destroy them.

- - What makes you think I did?

Man: Come on, men! No slacking!

Keep it up, you Paddy bastards! Keep working!

Gerry: Yeah, yeah.

Comrade soldiers of the Irish Volunteers,

and of the Citizen's Army,

Ireland will be free!

- Man: Fire! -

Would you bitches like to be raped

before or after you're shot?

Shane:

Siobhan MacGowan: When you're younger, the summers seem

to go on forever. Endless, endless days,

because in Ireland it's light till 11 o'clock in the summer.

Everything's an adventure,

and you'd have a kind of yearning for it,

because, of course, when you're back in England,

then you've got all the things you don't like doing,

which is school.

Shane was always very attached to the house,

because even when Mom and Dad would be leaving to go back,

Shane would stay on here right to the very end

that he had to come back for school.

And then me and Dad would go and pick him up off the bus.

And he was still wearing his cap,

and I could smell the fire off him.

And, yeah, he was sad to leave.

Siobhan: It had the biggest effect on him.

It gave him a sense of real Irishness

and of the old times of Ireland,

because we caught the end part of that.

And I think it is a primary influence on what he became.

So, how old were you when you came to London?

Yes.

Okay, I won't interrogate you, all right.

Uh...

Oh, totally get off the subject.

What do you want to talk about, then?

Man: How's that!

Oh, and cheddar, if you will.

Shane:

Shane:

Siobhan: We were Irish, yeah.

We were definitely, definitely Irish.

Dad would be playing all The Dubliners' records

and all the rebel songs. We knew all the words.

Shane:

We're a lawless people, aren't we?

I mean, that's what makes us free people.

Shane:

She was the girl with the St. Patrick's Day smile,

with the Irish wolfhounds there.