Ed Sheeran’s beloved Irish grandmother has passed away.
Anne Mary Sheeran, née Mulligan, passed away last Tuesday in a nursing home in Ireland.
She will be buried on Wednesday following a funeral at St Patrick’s Church, Monaseed, Gorey.
The singer’s grandmother, who was known as Nancy, was remembered as a “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.
“Deeply mourned by her loving sons, daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, friends and neighbors.”
Heartbroken: Ed Sheeran’s beloved Irish grandmother has passed away
RIP: Anne Mary, known as Nancy, Sheeran née Mulligan, from Gorey, passed away peacefully last Tuesday at Castle Gardens Nursing Home in Enniscorthy
Nancy, from Gorey in County Wexford, was the inspiration for his hit Nancy Mulligan, one of the singer’s most personal songs from his 2017 album Divide.
She died last week at Castle Gardens Nursing Home in Enniscorthy.
It tells the story of how his late grandfather William Sheeran, a Protestant from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Nancy, a Catholic from the Republic of Ireland, met, fell in love during World War II and were married on the Wexford border.
Ed, 32, previously said of the story behind the song: ‘They got engaged and no one showed up to their wedding.
“He stole all the gold teeth in his dental office and melted them down into a wedding ring, and they wore borrowed clothes to get married, and actually have this kind of Romeo and Juliet romance, which is the most romantic thing. So I thought, I’ll write a song about it and make a mold of it.’
Nancy and William had eight children and 23 grandchildren.
When the song was released, a beautiful video appeared of Nancy listening to the song for the first time in 2017.
The then 92-year-old told RTE News: ‘I will never consider him famous, I must say. He is exactly the same as always when he comes to visit.
“And it’s very rare because he’s always working and if you think he was working from the age of 14 you should feel sorry for him, you know he’s so tired but he loved it.”
Her Story: Ed’s grandmother inspired his hit Nancy Mulligan, one of the singer’s most personal songs from his 2017 Divide
Narrator: It comes as Ed’s wife Cherry Seaborn revealed he wrote seven songs in just four hours after discovering her cancer diagnosis
Ed had bonded with both of his grandmothers and in 2017 wrote Supermarket Flowers about his late maternal grandmother.
During her final months, the singer visited his terminally ill grandmother’s bedside almost daily.
In 2020, Ed revealed that he is still friends with many of the National Health Service staff at Aldeburgh Hospital in Suffolk who took such good care of his grandmother until her death.
He said, “I was lucky enough not to be on tour during my grandmother’s final months, and living nearby allowed me to visit her every few days.
“The care she received was incredible; the people working there were so nice, compassionate, funny and caring.
“When she passed away, I wrote a song called Supermarket Flowers about the situation. The verse lyrics are about packing her room in that hospital.
“Me and my family became very close to the nurses who worked there and my mother is still in touch with them. I see them occasionally when I’m around and it’s like meeting old friends.’
It comes as Ed’s wife Cherry Seaborn, 30, revealed he wrote seven songs in just four hours after discovering her cancer diagnosis.
Last month, the global hitmaker announced that his wife had been diagnosed with a tumor while pregnant with their second child.
Although the singer and his high school sweetheart kept the pregnancy a secret at the time, he told his Instagram followers that the couple was plagued with “anxiety, depression and anxiety” as Cherry was diagnosed with a tumor that could not be treated until she gave birth.
But now, in a new Disney+ special set that airs May 3, the couple is showing it all.
In the new documentary, she said, “Long story short, I was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year, which was a huge s**tter, but it made me think a lot about our mortality.”
On the battle against cancer, she added: “I told Eds I would never have done anything like this before – never, never, never – but it got me thinking all year long: if I were to die, what would be the perception of people of me?
‘What am I leaving behind? It wasn’t until this year that I really thought, “I could die”.
“We had the tumor diagnosed and the next day Eds went into the basement and wrote seven songs in four hours.
“Some people write a diary and write their emotions through the pen, and for Eds, when something really intense happens, he’s going to write a song.”
Ed explained, “Music has always been like therapy for me. It was a way of controlling my thoughts and feelings as a child, and it works. It really works.’
