“Shane will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams,” his wife Victoria Mary Clarke declared.

Shane MacGowan, the frontman and composer for the Pogues, has passed away. He had been sick for a while and was 65 years old.

The Pogues released the following statement on social media: “We announce Shane MacGowan’s passing with the heaviest of hearts and the deepest of sorrow.”

“This morning at three in the morning, Shane passed away quietly with his wife Victoria and family by his side.”

For several months, MacGowan was undergoing treatment in Dublin’s St. Vincent’s Hospital. On November 22, he was released from the hospital and went back to his house to spend time with his loved ones.

He was the frontman of the Irish punk group in the 1980s, best remembered for the 1987 release of the holiday smash song Fairytale of New York.

“There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world,” MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke wrote in an Instagram post.