Shane MacGowan says 'Fairytale of New York' was written to accurately describe a character
On Thursday, IrishCentral asked readers whether or not they felt the Christmas song 'Fairytale of New York' by the Pogues should be censored for its use of the word "faggot."
Readers overwhelmingly voted "No" that it should not be censored: 93% voted no, 7% voted yes.
Later on Thursday, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan issued a statement to Dublin-based Virgin Media Television’s The Tonight Show defending 'Fairytale of New York,' which he recorded in 1987 with the late Kirsty McColl.
His statement was primarily responding to a newly reignited debate kicked off recently by RTE 2FM DJs Eoghan McDermott and Stephen Byrne, who both want to see the word “faggot” censored in the Christmas song.
In his statement, MacGowan said: "The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character.”
Shane McGowan gives us a statement with his reaction to the #FairytaleofNewYork censorship calls @VirginMedia_One #TonightVMT pic.twitter.com/LudzWjZK9l
— The Tonight Show (@TonightVMT) December 6, 2018
"She is not supposed to be a nice person or even a wholesome person," says MacGowan of the character in his song, "She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate."
"Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend! She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively."
"If people don't understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word but I don't want to get into an argument.”
Read More: "Fairytale of New York" is not just a Christmas song, but also an immigrant ballad
On Thursday, prior to MacGowan’s statement, RTE said they had no plans to begin censoring the Pogues ‘Fairytale of New York.’
Watch the video for Fairytale of New York here:
Do you agree or disagree with lead singer Shane MacGowan's statement on 'Fairytale of New York'? Let us know in the comments
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