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St Patrick's Park pictured shortly before 1pm. Rónán Duffy/TheJournal
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'To not be alone in my grief': Fans from Ireland and abroad queue ahead of Glen Hansard funeral
Two large television screens and a sound system have been installed in the adjoining St Patrick’s Park.
LAST UPDATE | 4 Aug
FANS AND MOURNERS have been queueing since this morning to get inside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin for the funeral of Glen Hansard.
The funeral for the singer-songwriter and activist is at 1.30pm and though it will be open to the public, organisers said access inside the cathedral will be “extremely limited” due to the numbers expected.
As of 9.30pm this morning, a queue had already begun to form along the west side of St Patrick’s Park as people waited to get inside. The cathedral itself was allowing regular tour visitors inside only until 11am.
Two large television screens and a sound system have been installed in the adjoining St Patrick’s Park so that people unable to get inside can list to the service.
Hansard died at the age of 56 in a road crash at the Strawberry Beds in west Dublin in the early hours of last Wednesday 29 July.
The Frames frontman’s also had a successful solo-career and the international reach of his music was clear from those queueing, with The Journal speaking to people from countries including the United States, Germany and the UK.
One of those near the top of the queue was Clarissa Unger, a Washington DC-based longtime fan on Hansard’s music who said she was on holiday in Barcelona with her husband when she heard the news of his passing.
“We were meant to be travelling around Spain, and immediately when we found the news of when the memorial, the funeral, was going to be, we changed our flights to come here,” she said.
I’m just a huge admirer of Glen and his music and all that he’s done. So it just it felt wrong to not be here. I just wanted to be here amongst all the other folks who are here to honour him and just appreciate all that he’s done.
Clarissa added that one of the joys she has had as a fan of Hansard has been introducing his music, and especially his live shows, to other people.
“I will say one of the things that’s brought me the most joy over the course of the last 20 years has been bringing people to Glen’s concerts. Whether it be his solo shows or The Swell Season or The Frames, being at his concerts is just incredibly transformative.
“I think they fully compelled upon you an appreciation for music and for musicians and for really just life itself, and everyone that’s ever been to a concert with us, I think, has felt the same way.
I think that’s one of the hardest things to kind of come to terms with after hearing that he had passed is that we’ll never get to be at one of his performances again. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.
German fan Mareike, who hails from a “a small town about an hour from Cologne”, has been living in Achill for the summer and said it was a “no-brainer” to come today.
“First of all, it’s about giving respect to his family and to show that Glen was so important to me. Also, to actually connect with so many people from all over the world who came here this morning and to be not alone in my grief and not alone in my emotions.”
“I’m living on Achill Island for the summer but was in Dublin when I heard the news, and it was a no-brainer to come here today.”
Two fans standing side-by-side chatting in the queue were Phil Shaw from Liverpool and Ed Ruane from the nearby Liberties in Dublin.
The two men both felt it was important to pay their respects to Glen but for Phil it was primarily about his music and for Ed it was his activism.
“He’s a great man, Glen. You know, for me, I’m somewhat older than him, and his passion and his emotional depth and his music, but also his empathy towards the less fortunate in society, particularly the homeless,” Ed explainer.
You know, it wasn’t just talk, he acted. He put his hand in his pocket, paid for the Maldron Hotel for homeless people, that’s a rare combination.
Phil said that he has seen The Frame “hundreds of times” and that he felt they were his band “the second” he heard them back in Liverpool in the mid-2000s.
“I moved to Chicago for university at a time when The Frames were recording albums there. So I saw them hundreds of times, met Glen a lot of times, and he was just somebody who, you know, he wasn’t a friend, but he was somebody who you felt when you met him, he would give everybody the time of day. Whether it was somebody on the street who just came across him, somebody he knew for a long, long-time, he would give everybody the same time of day.”
He added: “I think I read a quote this week saying, ‘if any artist ever could move tides, t would have been Glen Hansard.’”
Phil said that he attended the public wake for Hansard in Dublin yesterday and that although he “worried it would be sombre” there was “a strange feeling of joy that was quite cathartic”.
Phil added that he had booked to see Hansard on three dates of his planned Irish tour later this year but that he is glad he got to bring his son to the final gig of Hansard’s he attended earlier this year.
“Looking back through the videos on my phone I can barely believe that only a month and a half ago I was watching him play. He was due to do an Irish tour, October, November. I’d booked to come and see three dates on that tour, to bring my family over. I’ve got a son who’s 10, and I took him to see Glennin Manchester for the first time, and I’m very glad I did that.”
Funeral
Hansard’s funeral begins at 1.30pm this afternoon and The Journal will be liveblogging the service, which is also being streamed on several platforms including by RTÉ. .
Hansard’s friends and family will provide the music.
The service can also be watched live here. Instead of flowers or gifts, the family have asked that donations be made to the Simon Community and Ukrainian Action Ireland.
Hansard is survived by his wife, Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, his young son Christy, his sister and four brothers, and extended friends and family.
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