Therese MacGowan, the mother of The Pogues frontman Shane, died on New Year's Day in the first fatal road collision of the New Year.

It is reported that her car hit a wall in Ballintoher, Tipperary, just miles from her home. The accident occurred at 3pm on New Year’s Day and there were no other occupants in the car. She was said to be 87 years of age when she died. A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out today.

Therese’s world-famous son Shane had just celebrated his 59th birthday on Christmas Day. The Fairytale of New York singer was born in Kent, England to Therese and her husband Maurice. Therese is from Tipperary, and the family soon moved back to Ireland after Shane’s birth, where he and his sister Siobhan grew up.

Therese was a singer and an Irish dancer, and Shane had previously talked about learning most of the songs in his repertoire from her family.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2013, Shane described how his mother would have made a special effort for him on his birthday. “My ma always made a big effort to make it a special day for me, but it was always more important to me that it was Christmas than that it was my birthday.”

The singer also talked about how his parents wanted him to have a happy childhood. “I was brought up mainly by my mother’s family in Tipperary because although my parents both had jobs in England, they were very unhappy there and wanted me to have as much happiness as possible before I had to go to school.”