Ed Sheeran’s beloved Irish grandmother Nancy Mulligan has sadly passed away.
Ann Mary Sheeran, who was known as Nancy, passed away at Castle Gardens Nursing in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford last week.
The 98-year-old and her husband William had eight children and 23 grandchildren.
Nancy was the inspiration behind Ed’s 2017 hit Nancy Mulligan, from his Divide album.
The song tells the story of his grandfather William, a protestant from Belfast, and Nancy, a catholic from the republic, who fell in love during World War II.
They tied the knot at the Wexford border.
Ed previously said: “They got engaged and no one turned up at their wedding.”
“He stole all the gold teeth in his dental surgery and melted them down into a wedding ring, and they wore borrowed clothes to get married, and just basically have this kind of Romeo and Juliet romance, which is like the most romantic thing. So I thought I’d write a song about it and make it a jig.”
In 2017, Nancy told RTÉ of her famous grandson: “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.”
