Richard Hogan: Shane MacGowan was more than a hellraiser - were we complicit in his tragic loss?

"There was a vulnerability and innocence to him, that we all saw and felt needed safeguarding. Whenever he was interviewed, I held my breath. Hoping he wouldn’t be ridiculed or condescended by the interviewer he was faced with."

Richard Hogan. Photograph Moya Nolan

The smoke swirling up like some sort of funnelling gyre from the ashtray. A half-drunk bottle of wine. The first sounds of that piano riff. 

Enter Shane MacGowan, dragged into a police station by a fresh-faced Matt Dillion and that massive hat wobbling around on his unsteady head.