A touching tribute by the ‘Perfect’ singer.
Ed Sheeran shared a heartfelt moment with Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show this week as he talked about his Irish grandfather.
Before performing his song, ‘Nancy Mulligan’ he explained the inspiration behind its lyrics, telling Tubridy,
“‘Nancy Mulligan’ is about my grandfather and grandmother. My gradfather is a Protestant from Belfast and my Grandmother is a Catholic from Wexford.
“When they got married it was like a real thing, but they went against people, got married and ended up being married for 66 years before my grandfather passed away.”
Describing his grandfather, William Sheeran as a “huge royalist”, Ed said that the MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) was a “really big deal” for hiim
“[He] loved the royal family, had commemorative plates and shit. He was bang into it.”
“He sadly passed away in 2013 but when the MBE came in, I remember being with my Dad and being like, ‘Ah shit, wouldn’t it be cool if graddad was alive now to see this.'”
Ed later went on to talk about his 2017 hit ‘Galway Girl’, his passion for Ireland and fear of social media, and a track he has stowed away in case the next Bond movie is looking for music.
The singer rocked the internet on Wednesday (13 December) after doing a rendition of the Pogues’ Christmas hit, ‘Fairytale of New York’, which he jokingly said was “a cover that you shouldn’t really touch… I’m going to get murdered for doing this cover.”
Other guests set to feature on the Late-Late are Galway hurling legend Joe Canning, comedians Jason Byrne and Brendan Grace, along with music from Picture This and Lisa Hannigan.
Check out Ed’s appearance the Late-Late Show on RTÉ One at 9.35pm this Friday, December 15.
Until then, watch a clip from the interview here:
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
