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Musicians gather by Luke Kelly's statue near Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre for a memorial get-together honouring Glen Hansard Leah Farrell
RIP
'We sang Once twice': Musicians gather in Dublin to remember Glen Hansard
The 56-year-old Irish singer-songwriter and activist died yesterday in a motorcycle crash.
LAST UPDATE | 30 Jul
MUSICIANS GATHERED AT the Luke Kelly Statue near Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre this evening to sing together and remember Glen Hansard, The Frames’ frontman who died in a motorcycle crash yesterday.
Hansard was a regular fixture outside the theatre every Christmas, when he and other musicians would perform on the street to raise money for the Dublin Simon Community homeless charity.
Hundreds of people gathered to watch the performance, which featured some classic Irish songs as well of some of Hansard’s own material.
The busk in Hansard’s honour had to finish earlier than billed, though, due to the significant numbers of people arriving to watch.
John Lynch, a musician from Dublin who took part alongside others from the Áras Chrónáin Irish culture centre in Clondalkin, said hearing the news of Hansard’s passing “hit us very hard”.
“We couldn’t believe it. We had to do something,” he said, adding that it was “very easy to gather people” to take part in the event for “one of our own”.
“Glen would have been a huge inspiration to me, especially for songwriting and the fearlessness of the songwriting.”
Colm Gavin, a Dublin-based singer-songwriter who regularly takes part in the Christmas busk, also performed at today’s memorial event.
“It was really special,” he said. “It was lovely to be here.”
“We sang a lot of songs, a lot of Dublin songs, The Auld Triangle, some of Glenn songs,” Gavin said.
“We sang Once twice,” Lynch added with a laugh.
When the singing came to an end, there were a number of people, including some of the musicians, embracing and shedding a few tears as the crowd began to disperse.
Earlier today, long queues of people waited to sign a Book of Condolence that is open in the Mansion House in Dublin from 10am–4pm each day but can also be signed online.
Tributes to Hansard have come from beyond the music world and beyond Ireland’s shores, demonstrating the lasting impact life’s work had on people both here and internationally.
In Ireland, his contemporaries have spoken about the friendship and their shared influence on one another.
Donaghmede native Damien Dempsey wrote of his fellow northsider:
“I’m writing this in tears thinking of our great times together, Glen, Ballymun Bard, one of the finest songwriters I ever heard, and the most powerful passionate performer I ever shared a stage with, your power was unfathomable, other worldly, when you ripped into a song you’d rip the roof off the venue and rip your heart out of your chest and hand it to us, and shake us all awake right into the very moment, a monumental power and a monumental loss.”
Singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan said that she felt “absolutely bereft” following his passing:
I will never forget the first time I saw Glen sing. I was 18 and went to Vicar st to see the Frames not knowing a single song. I was left in absolute awe at his gifts -the raging power and fragile beauty of his voice, his songwriting, his confidence, his humour.
Veteran music writer BP Fallon described Hansard as “a man of Celtic soul”:
“If all Glen ever did was organising the uplifting Christmas sing-songs in Grafton Street – drawing in the likes of Sinead, Imelda May and Bono – that alone flies the flag up the pole,” he said.
Fallon is referencing the now Christmas Eve Grafton Street busk for charity that was spearheaded by Hansard and is now an annual event with some of the biggest names in Irish music.
Musician Mundy, who has frequently performed with Hansard, posted online:
“I’m fkd. This guy was a trailblazer. He was such an influence on me. I met him when I was 16/17. His energy was unmatched. His right hand was the most fkn magical thing to watch. He could whisper and roar the walls down. He pissed me off sometimes but that was a bit of jealousy and competition on my behalf. He was parallel to all the greats in my view and all the greats knew who he was.”
Mundy’s referencing of the greats is a nod to the esteem musicians from across the world held Hansard in, with some global superstars posting about his death since it has become widely reported.
Bruce Springsteen said in a post on Instagram that he was “heartbroken” at the news.
“We met in Ireland many years ago and he was always nothing but a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man,” he wrote.
Always positive, smiling and ready to sing. God bless him and his loved ones.
Grammy award winner Finneas O’Connell, who is brother to Billie Eilish and collaborator on her work, wrote that Hansard’s Oscar-winning Falling Slowly was the first song he ever himself performed on stage.
“His songs made me want to write songs and they also made me cry. When our family met him in Dublin in 2019, he greeted us like old friends even though we were just his fans. Today I am a heartbroken fan. Hope he knew how much he meant to so many, this is how much he meant to me,” O’Connell wrote.
Billie Eilish herself posted a picture of herself and Hansard together, saying: “Devastated, wouldn’t be who I am today without Glen.”
Comedian and actor O’Dowd said he could not believe the singer “left the world so terribly early”.
He wrote: “His energising melodies and soulful, searching voice made the tough times more manageable, the stagnant times more beautiful, and the joyful times even more memorable.
O’Dowd is currently performing in The Brightening Air in Dublin’s The Gate Theatre and delivered a tribute to Hansard after last night’s performance in which he led a standing ovation with the audience.
Hansard was not an actor by trade but was famously part of two of Irish cinema’s most successful films of the past 35 years, the first time as part of The Commitments ensemble cast and then as the lead in Once.
The aforementioned Bono also released a lengthy tribute to Hansard, calling him “otherworldly” and “a smiling rascal if you needed him to be”.
“Of course, Glen was the shining star of the Christmas Eve busk… sometimes the only one reminding the rest of us that Christmas began with a refugee born in a manger, which is hardly a step from living on the street,” Bono wrote.
He continued:
“When the crowds got bigger and for safety’s sake Glen had to agree to move the busk to a stage kindly provided outside The Gaiety Theatre, he would say ‘we’ll give it our best but it’s not a busk if we’re not on the street!’ …because that’s who he was – a performer at eye level in any situation. The stage was a separation he wouldn’t recognise.
Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and The Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience.
“Voice of the streets. A choir of angels in one man. The rest of us blessed to stand there beside our very own and very earthed Angel Gabriel… All of us welcome in his choir, whatever shape or form.”
With reporting from David Mac Redmond and Press Association
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