Shane MacGowan’s wife shares wedding day photo to celebrate five years of marriage

Victoria Mary Clarke, the wife of The Pogues star Shane MacGowan, has shared a photo celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary.

Clarke, an Irish journalist, and the singer-songwriter have been together for several decades, but only exchanged wedding vows in November 2018.

MacGowan, known to many as one of the voices behind the Christmas anthem “Fairytale of New York”, has suffered ill health for several years. He recently ended a months-long stint in hospital after an encephalitis diagnosis last December.

In an Instagram post on Sunday (26 November), Clarke shared a paparazzi image from the ceremony showing her in a red dress, laughing, as a suited MacGowan smiles back.

“One of my favourite pictures of our wedding which was five years ago today,” she began her caption.

“Getting to Copenhagen was quite an achievement and I suppose just getting through some of the stuff that we all went through to get to be still alive was a massive achievement!

“It was a beautiful thing to feel so much love,” Clarke added, before crediting individual loved ones for their support.

Prior to his discharge from St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin on Wednesday (22 November), Clarke had been sharing regular messages of her hope that MacGowan would be able to return home soon.

On Tuesday (14 November), Clarke shared a photo image of MacGowan wearing a hospital robe and assistive breathing apparatus, while thanking his Pogues bandmates Spider Stacy and Terry Woods for visiting him.

“I just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone who has been messaging me and @ShaneMacGowan and thank you @spiderstacy and Terry Woods for coming to visit him,” she wrote alongside the picture.

“Love and prayers for everyone who is struggling right now. Hang in there!”

In an update posted on Wednesday (22 November) night, Clarke posted an image of MacGowan smiling in a hospital bed wearing a scarf and bobble hat on X/Twitter.

Alongside the post, she wrote: “Shane got out of the hospital!”

“We are deeply and eternally grateful to all of the doctors and nurses and staff at St Vincent’s it’s the best!

“And special thanks to Tom Creagh and Brian Corscadden for your help.”