Dubliners bid farewell to Shane MacGowan singing his Christmas classic

FILE PHOTO: Shane MacGowan, former lead singer of The Pogues, performs during the Montreux Jazz festival in the [Miles Davis] Hall late July 15, 1995. MacGowan and his band The Popes were part of the 'Irish Night' during the festival. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Hundreds of Dubliners lined the streets singing The Pogues' Christmas anthem "Fairytale of New York" to bid farewell to singer Shane MacGowan as his horse-drawn hearse passed through the Irish capital on Friday.

MacGowan, the London-Irish punk who transformed Irish traditional music with The Pogues and penned some of the 1980s' most haunting ballads before sinking into alcohol and drug addiction, died last week aged 65.