DUBLIN – Hundreds of mourners including Irish musicians and entertainers filled a Dublin cathedral on Tuesday for the funeral of Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who died in a motorcycle crash last week at the age of 56.
Actors Steve Coogan and Chris O’Dowd and musicians including Bono, Hozier, Declan O’Rourke and Imelda May were in the congregation alongside friends, family and fans who had queued for hours outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
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A large crowd watched on big screens outside as pallbearers carried a wicker coffin topped with flowers into the cathedral.
William Morton, the dean of the cathedral, said: “Glen’s remarkable gifts and outstanding talent, which touched so many hearts, took him from the streets of Dublin to audiences across the globe.”
The funeral service was interwoven with music, including a performance by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, who sang Hansard’s “The Song of Good Hope” alongside Hansard’s longstanding musical partner Markéta Irglová.
U2's Bono said of Hansard: “Everyone who met him, they just remembered the day they met him.”
Bono held up his phone to play a message he'd received from singer and poet Patti Smith performing “a lullaby for Glen’s family and friends,” before reciting lyrics to U2’s “Beautiful Day.”
Hansard was killed in a single-vehicle crash on the outskirts of Dublin on July 29, hours after taking part in a trad music session at a pub.
His widow, Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, who thanked the police officers who came to his aid, read a poem she had written for him early in their relationship.
She said the couple's 3-year-old son was too young to attend or understand the funeral, but “the bright spirit he inherited from his father is with us.”
Hansard was the longtime front man of Irish rock band The Frames and played a member of a Dublin soul band in the hit 1991 movie “The Commitments.” He won an Oscar in 2008 for the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once,” in which he co-starred with Irglová. A stage adaptation won eight Tony Awards in 2012.
Hansard also was half of rock duo The Swell Season with Irglová and released solo albums including “Didn’t He Ramble,” which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2016.
For many years he led a Christmas Eve busk outside Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre, where members of the public gathered to see famous Irish musicians perform in aid of a homelessness charity.
Tributes have been paid by fellow musicians. Bruce Springsteen said on Instagram he was “heartbroken” at the loss of “a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man.”