The Pogues' Shane MacGowan performs the much-loved festive favourite 'Fairytale of New York'

For the first time in years, The Pogue's frontman Shane MacGowan has given fans a live performance of his 1987 Christmas classic 'Fairytale of New York'.

Taking to the stage for the Irish chat show The Late Late Show, which was paying tribute to his life and career to date, the 61-year-old singer was joined by country music queen Philomena Begley performing the late Kirsty McColl's segment of the song.

McGowan also addressed the controversy surrounding 'Fairytale of New York' over the use of the word "f*****" in the iconic song.

He said he included it because it fitted with the way the flawed character would speak, but that he is "absolutely fine" with the word being censored.

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The Irish singer also revealed that the much-loved hit was never supposed to be a Christmas song at all.

Shane said: "We just set it at Christmas. Apart from that, it was Pogues subject matter. A couple fighting.

"We didn’t look to any other Christmas songs, we just did our own one. I wasn't interested in writing Christmas songs.

"We just wrote a good song that happens to be at Christmas."