Ed Sheeran ‘heartbroken’ over death of grandmother who inspired his hit ‘Nancy Mulligan’
Six years after writing ‘Nancy Mulligan’ in her honour, Ed Sheeran is mourning the death of his grandmother Anne Mary.
Ed Sheeran is mourning the death of his grandmother Anne Mary.
The singer was inspired by her to write his hit ‘Nancy Mulligan’, and is said to have been left “heartbroken” by her passing at Castle Gardens Nursing Home in Enniscorthy last Tuesday, according to The Sun.
It reported her obituary said she was the “beloved wife of the late Bill and loving mother of Jim, Bill, Peter, Chris, John, MaryAnne, Bridget and the late Sally and sister of the late Thomas, Jim, May and Peggy”.
The Sun added the tribute also said her passing was “deeply regretted by her loving sons, daughters, grandchildren, great grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, niece, nephews, relatives, friends and neighbours”.
Anne, better known as Nancy Sheeran (née Mulligan), who was from Gorey, Co Wexford, is reportedly set to be laid to rest on Wednesday after 11am funeral mass in St Patrick’s Church, Monaseed, Gorey.
Ed’s grandmother and her late husband William Sheeran raised eight children and had 23 grandchildren.
The singer’s ‘Nancy Mulligan’ song is on his third album ‘Divide’ and details her romance with William across religious divides.
Dad-of-two Ed said on Ireland’s ‘The Late Late Show’: “Nancy Mulligan is about my grandfather and my grandmother.
“My grandfather is a Protestant from Belfast and my grandmother is a Catholic from Wexford and 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.”
A then-92-year-old Anne told Irish station RTE News in 2017 about how she loved Ed’s down-to-earth nature despite his global success: “I’ll never think of him as being famous, I have to say. He’s exactly the same as he always is when he visits.
“And it’s very rare because he’s always working and when you think he was working from the age of 14, you’d have to feel sorry for him, you know he’s so tired but he loved it.”
Her death comes as an upcoming Disney+ documentary on Ed’s life will reveal he once wrote seven songs in for hours to deal with his fear his childhood sweetheart wife Cherry Seaborn, 30, was going to die from cancer after she was diagnosed with the disease in February 2022, before making a recovery.
