Shane MacGowan's loss has plunged the global Irish into wake mode

Pogues singer's words narrated the experience of the migrant, writes Sam Boland

This weekend, Irish people the world over will hold a wake for Shane, as only we know how, with story and song and his own inimitable words—'Sad to say I must be on my way so buy me beer and whiskey 'cause I'm going far away...' File picture: Collins Photos

The Irish do mourning like no one else in the world. To any other nationality, this seems a weird boast, but it's just one of our little-understood cultural traits that we embrace in our stubborn-headed rightness. 

Who doesn't know, or at least know of, an English person shocked to see a body laid out at a wake, because that's just not how it's done in the rest of the western world?