His mum's mum was ill in hospital and passed when he was recording divide so he wrote the song from his mum's perspective. In the songwriter documentary he played it to his dad and his cousin Murray Cummings who made the documentary said he made sure to just keep the camera on Ed when filming that bit as he didn't want to invade on his uncle's raw reaction to such a personal moment. Also, Murray has a songwriting credit on Nancy Mulligan because as Ed was starting to write it Murray kept chipping in with stories granddad had told them growing up so Ed told him to put the camera down and help with writing the song.
Honestly, I don't want to listen to this song anymore. It makes me very emotional since my dad passed away when I was 13 yrs old. The line "you got to see the person I have become" it hits me so much. It's like, if he still alive, he will see how we(my siblings) are right now. Having our own family and daughters and sons. I missed him so much. Thank you for this Touchy Reaction ❤️
Ed wrote this song from his mums perspective towards her mum (his nan) at the time of her death ... his nan was in fact born Nancy Mulligan as you mentioned... Ed Sheeran’s paternal grandmother, Anne Mary Sheeran, also known as Nancy Sheeran, was the inspiration behind his beautiful song 'Nancy Mulligan’. Nancy Sheeran, whose maiden name was Mulligan, passed away peacefully at Castle Gardens Nursing Home in the town of Enniscorthy in the Republic of Ireland. In another deeply personal song from his 2017 album “Divide,” Ed paid tribute to the love of his grandparents who fought through religious prejudice to be together. Their story is like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet: one was Protestant from Belfast, and the other was Catholic from southern Ireland. Despite the odds, they fell in love and married. William, Ed’s grandfather, melted his gold teeth into a wedding ring, and they wore borrowed clothes for their wedding. Together, Nancy and William had eight children and a total of twenty-three grandchildren
We played this at my mums funeral. It summed up everything about her so much, but everything I hear it, it evokes a pain inside of me. It's so beautiful tho. Bless you Ed
Ed has a lot of sad songs like this about death. Like afire love and visiting hours. I would like it if you guys react to runaway by Ed sheeran and or are entertained
This is such a beautiful powerful song done wonderfully by Ed ! There is an amazing cover of Supermarket Flowers from 6 years ago that you should check out ! Amazing for two reasons, first this video went viral and changed this young lady's life forever ! Second 6 years ago this young lady was 12 years old, and as comments have mentioned Ed wrote this song for his grandmum, but could have written it for this young lady, because she lost her Mum just a few years before ! Take a listen to a young Allie Sherlock, who is now 18 and has become a RU-vid Super Star ! You can find this video on Allie's RU-vid channel and you'll find many, many other amazing Allie videos there also, enjoy ! 🎤🎸🎶
