On loan from EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, in Dublin, Ireland, the career-spanning exhibition, “They Gave The Walls A Talking: The Extraordinary Story of The Pogues and Shane MacGowan,” illuminates the evolution of The Pogues, the rise of punk rock and the role of the Irish diaspora on the British music scene.
Curated by Niall Stokes, leading Irish music writer and editor of the hugely influential Hot Press magazine, the exhibit features contributions from family members, band members and more, including MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke, Siobhan MacGowan, Jem Finer, Nick Cave, Imelda May, Glen Hansard, producer Steve Lillywhite and the family of the late Frank Murray, the band’s original manager.
Exclusive to the Tulsa run, the exhibit includes rare material selected by MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke. Taken from “The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold,” the selections include never-before-seen or published illustrations, drawings, lyrics, stories and snippets dating back to his childhood, and journeying through six decades of punk and Irish revelry.
The Pogues combined rowdy punk rock with traditional Irish music to create some of the most dynamic and memorable songs of the 1980s and ‘90s. Their best-known song in the U.S. is the Christmas ballad “Fairytale of New York.” Other Pogues classics include “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn,” “A Pair of Brown Eyes,” “Rainy Night in Soho,” “If I Should Fall from Grace with God,” “Misty Morning, Albert Bridge” and the Ewan MacColl cover “Dirty Old Town.”
“They Gave The Walls A Talking” opened in December 2023 at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, in Dublin, Ireland, shortly after the death of Pogues co-founder, primary songwriter and frontman Shane MacGowan.
The VIP members-only opening event on March 7 will feature Clarke and Stokes in conversation with author and editor Anne Margaret Daniel.
On March 8, Clarke will appear at a special public screening of “Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan,” the 2020 documentary directed by Julien Temple and produced by Johnny Depp. The film will be shown Tulsa’s Circle Cinema. Ticket information will be available soon.
This exhibit is made possible through the generous support of Vincent LoVoi and Beatriz Pérez, as well as McNellie’s Group.
