- During high school Thomas Dolby was his classmate in English Literature.
- At the height of his popularity during the 1980s he described himself as "London Irish" in interviews. However at some point during the 1990s he began to describe himself as Irish.
- In 2001, Sinéad O'Connor reported MacGowan to the police in London for drug possession, in what she said was an attempt to discourage him from using heroin. At first furious, MacGowan later expressed gratitude towards O'Connor and claimed that the incident helped him kick his heroin habit.
- His mother, Therese, worked as a typist at a convent and had previously been a singer, traditional Irish dancer, and model.
- MacGowan began drinking at age five, when his family gave him Guinness to help him sleep, and his father frequently took him to the local pub while he drank with his friends.
- He was notorious for his crooked and missing teeth, a result of his long abuse of alcohol and drugs. In 2015 he had a 9-hour operation to fit 28 false teeth, including a gold one at the front which he had requested.
- In 2001, MacGowan rejoined The Pogues for reunion shows and remained with the group until 2014.
- MacGowan joined the punk band The Nipple Erectors before founding the Pogues in 1982.
- MacGowan made a return to stage on 13 June 2019 at the RDS Arena in Dublin as a guest for Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders.
- He won the 2018 Ivor Novello Inspiration Award.
- In 2010, MacGowan offered a piece of unusual art to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) to auction off to support their services to children: a drawing on a living room door. It ended up earning EUR1,602 for the charity.
- MacGowan was hospitalised for an infection on 6 December 2022. He was diagnosed with viral encephalitis.
- In 2001, MacGowan coauthored the autobiographical book "A Drink with Shane MacGowan" with his then partner, later wife, Victoria Mary Clarke.
- In 2010, MacGowan played impromptu shows in Dublin with a new five-piece backing band named the Shane Gang, including In Tua Nua rhythm section Paul Byrne (drums) and Jack Dublin (bass), with manager Joey Cashman on whistle. In November 2010, this line up went to Lanzarote to record a new album. MacGowan and the Shane Gang performed at the Red Hand Rocks music festival in the Patrician Hall, Carrickmore County Tyrone in June 2011.
- As an adolescent, he considered the priesthood.
- MacGowan suffered physically from years of binge drinking.
- MacGowan used a wheelchair following a fall as he was leaving a Dublin studio in the summer of 2015, which fractured his pelvis. He continued to use a wheelchair until his death in 2023.
- In January 2018, MacGowan was honoured with a concert gala to celebrate his 60th birthday at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, where he was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by Irish President Michael D. Higgins.
- In 1997, MacGowan appeared on Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", covered by numerous artists in aid of Children in Need. It was the UK's number one single for three weeks, in two separate spells. Selling over a million copies, the record contributed £2,125,000 to the charity's highest fund raising total in six years.
- It was reported in July 2023 that MacGowan was hospitalised in the intensive care unit. Following treatment for an infection, he was discharged in November.
- Between 1985 and 1987, he co-wrote "Fairytale of New York", which he performed with Kirsty MacColl.
- Many of his songs are influenced by Irish nationalism, Irish history, the experiences of the Irish diaspora (particularly in England and the United States), and London life in general.
- He was first publicly noted in 1976 at a concert by London punk rock band The Clash, where his earlobe was damaged by future Mo-dettes bassist Jane Crockford. A photographer took a picture of him covered in blood, which made the local papers with the headline "Cannibalism at Clash Gig".
- After The Pogues fired MacGowan for unprofessional behavior mid-tour, he formed a new band, Shane MacGowan and The Popes, with whom he recorded two studio albums.
- MacGowan produced his own solo material and collaborated with artists such as Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Steve Earle, Sinéad O'Connor, and Ronnie Drew.
- In 1971 he left Holmewood House preparatory school in Langton Green, Kent, with a scholarship for Westminster School. He was found in possession of drugs and expelled in his second year.
- He drew upon his Irish heritage when founding The Pogues and changed his early punk style for a more traditional sound with tutoring from his extended family.
- MacGowan was a Roman Catholic, describing himself as "a free-thinking religious fanatic" who also prayed to Buddha.
- He was an Irish singer and songwriter who was best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic punk band the Pogues.
- In 1988 he co-wrote Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six, a song by the Pogues which proved highly controversial, banned on British TV and radio.
- In 2004, on the BBC TV political magazine programme This Week, he gave incoherent and slurred answers to questions from Janet Street-Porter about the public smoking ban in Ireland.
- Having grown up in an Irish republican family, MacGowan said in 2015 that he regretted not joining the IRA.
- MacGowan suffered physically from years of binge drinking. He often performed onstage and gave interviews while drunk.
- Thirty five years after they first met, he and Victoria Mary Clarke got married in Copenhagen Town Hall, Denmark, in November 2018.
- Winner of the 2004 Q Merit Award.
- He was the subject of several books and paintings. In 2000, Tim Bradford used the title Is Shane MacGowan Still Alive? for a humorous book about Ireland and Irish culture.
- MacGowan was long known for having very bad teeth; he lost the last of his natural teeth sometime around 2008. In 2015, he had a new set of teeth, with one gold tooth, fitted in a nine-hour procedure. These were retained by eight titanium implants in his jaws. The procedure was the subject of the hour-long television programme Shane MacGowan: A Wreck Reborn. The dental surgeon who carried out the procedure commented that MacGowan had recorded most of his great works while he still had some teeth: "We've effectively re-tuned his instrument and that will be an ongoing process.".
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