Within the wake of the death of The Pogues’ great singer and poet Shane MacGowan on Nov. 30 in Dublin, Ireland, there was a renewed worldwide passion for the band’s “Fairytale of Latest York,” the classic down-on-their-luck Irish émigrés duet between MacGowan and the late, great Kirsty MacColl.

Bouyed by the crescendo of “And the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day,” the song has turn into a staple around the vacations, but at Kieran’s Irish Pub in downtown Minneapolis, it has at all times been thus.

Since its in opening on the corner of W. sixth Street and N. 1st Avenue in 2010, pub patrons have been greeted by the song’s lyrics upon entry, with “Got on a lucky one/Got here in 18 to at least one/I’ve got a sense,” and “I like you baby/And the bells were ringing out/They howled out for more” painted on glass above the front bar, and “We kissed on a corner then danced through the night“ behind the stage. Amidst all of the Irish décor — the “Titanic room,” portraits of W.B. Yeats, Van Morrison, John F. Kennedy, James Joyce and others — MacGowan’s lilting words leap from the partitions and into the imagination.

“People at all times comment on them, but within the last week it’s been on daily basis, multiple times,” said Kieran’s bartender John Fitzgerald, nodding up on the words looming over him. “With Shane’s passing and all, people have definitely been more interested in, you recognize, ‘Is that from…?’ Because as they’re, the lyrics, they’re slightly disjointed.”

Pub owner Kieran Folliard, a longtime MacGowan and Pogues fan, had the lyrics painted over the bar and stage upon moving operations from the unique Kieran’s location at S. 4th Street and 2nd Avenue. Because the Kieran’s sign outside the door has it, “Cead Mile Failte (‘100 thousand welcomes’), Born 03-16-1994, Emigrated 03-16-2010.”

“The lyrics have been here ever since we opened — March 16, 2010, which was the sixteenth anniversary of the unique pub opening in 1994,” said Folliard last week, sitting on the bar and nursing a pint of Guinness and a shot of the Irish whiskey that bears his name, Kieran’s Red Locks. “So 16 years later, we moved it over here. We had a pipe band, and we had about 300 people march down with pints — completely illegal, but whatever.

“I at all times considered MacGowan because the quintessential icon for a public house. Because clearly, he was the poet, and Ireland and poets and pubs seems to have a connection that goes back a good distance, whether it’s Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, the entire great Irish writers, all of them appear to have pubs running through their writing. And MacGowan, I remember I went to the Mean Fiddler in London a million years ago, since it was reported that he used to spend time there. I never got to satisfy him, unfortunately, but I did get to see him on stage here at First Avenue. I don’t know the way he stood on stage that night, but whatever.”

(MacGowan and his band the Popes played First Avenue in 1995 and 2001.)

In Ireland last week, “Fairytale of Latest York” (from The Pogues’ 1988 album “If I Should Fall From Grace With God”) hit No. 1 on the Irish charts, 36 years after it first hit the highest of the charts there.

In America, the football-playing Kelce brothers’ version (“Fairytale of Philadelphia”) just hit the highest of the Billboard charts,  and when Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill performed “Fairytale of Latest York” with the surviving members of the Pogues at MacGowan’s funeral in Tipperary Friday, the video of church-goers dancing within the aisles went viral.

To ensure, more live versions are sure to abound this month (including Dec. 19 at the Driftwood Char Bar in Minneapolis, where Minnesota rock legends Robert Wilkinson and Gini Dodds will join St. Dominic’s Trio for what is certain to be a one-for-the-ages version), culminating in a worldwide singalong on Dec. 25, the “Christmas Day” so heart-rippingly celebrated in “Fairytale of Latest York,” and MacGowan’s 66th heavenly birthday.

“For me, ‘Fairy Tale of Latest York’ itself is such an everyperson story, how you may have relationships, you fall on hard times, you may come back up, the dreamers, the romantic side of it,” said Folliard. “And I believe that it was just calling out for it to be up there: You realize, ‘Bells are ringing out,’ ‘Howling out for more…’ You know, we now have live music, perhaps poetry night, or I used to be down here for the Ireland-South Africa rugby game of the World Cup, and there was a variety of howling out for more that day, as well. Every little thing about it just speaks to humanity, the general public house, the egalitarian gathering spot. You realize, you could possibly have your Armani suit next to torn jeans, whatever, and the pub welcomes you. Here’s to Shane. Long may he live.”

At that, Folliard tipped his glass toward a framed portrait of MaGowan that has hung behind the bar since Day One.

Folliard lifts a toast to the framed portrait of Shane MacGowan that hangs behind the bar at Kieran’s Irish Pub. (MinnPost photo by Jim Walsh)

Of “Fairytale of Latest York,” MacGowan’s friend and fellow songwriter Nick Cave defended the songcraft behind the tune’s homosexual slur, and poetically championed the entire of the song when he wrote,

“Truly great songs which can be as emotionally powerful as ‘Fairytale of Latest York’ are very rare indeed. ‘Fairytale’ is a lyrical high wire act of dizzying scope and potency, and it rightly takes its place as the best Christmas song ever written. It stands shoulder to shoulder with any great song, from any time, not only for its sheer audacity, or its deep empathy, but for its astonishing technical brilliance.

“One in all the numerous reasons this song is so loved is that, beyond almost every other song I can consider, it speaks with such profound compassion to the marginalized and the dispossessed. With certainly one of the best opening lines ever written, the lyrics and the vocal performance emanate from deep contained in the lived experience itself, existing inside the very bones of the song. It never looks down on its protagonists. It doesn’t patronize, but speaks its truth, clear and unadorned. It’s an impressive gift to the outcast, the unfortunate and the broken-hearted. We empathize with the plight of the 2 fractious characters, who live their lonely, desperate lives against all that Christmas guarantees — home and hearth, cheer, bounty and goodwill. It’s as real a bit of lyric writing as I actually have ever heard.”

Does that every one translate to pub-goers in Minneapolis, who occur upon the words at Kieran’s?

“In the event that they’re from Ireland, or England possibly, and in addition folks that are really into that scene, they recognize it,” said Folliard. “Pat Curry, who worked with me for years on the bars and whatnot — he’s with the fellows on the Loon, now — someone like Pat who’s a really voracious reader and he’s into bands like The Pogues, that can be definitely something he’d sit and have a pint and have a look at that and think about it.

“But out of the blue, for those who took a complete group of folks that were in here before a Timberwolves game possibly, and we asked people whose words they were, not many would know. But I suppose to a point, it may speak to anybody when you simply read the words without knowing the source. Myself, I believe I wanted [to commemorate it] only for the ups and downs of the song, the sentiments of life and the twists and turns, and, after all, just the rhythm of it.”