Hundreds of mourners, including high-profile politicians, actors and musicians, gathered in Dublin for the funeral of Glen Hansard, who died on July 29 in a motorcycle crash at the age of 56.
Access to St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday was limited given the size of the crowd who came to celebrate the Irishman’s life, but stars Bono, Steve Coogan, Chris O’Dowd, Declan O’Rourke, Imelda May, Hozier, BP Fallon, Mundy, Damien Dempsey and Jake Clemons were among those photographed entering the venue.
Hansard was best known as the frontman for the rock band the Frames, though he had successful solo albums with 2012’s Rhythm and Repose and 2015’s Didn’t He Ramble. He also wrote music for film, appearing in the BAFTA-winning The Commitments (1991) and Irish music drama Once (2007), in which he and co-star Markéta Irglová played a dramatized version of their real-life musical pairing, folk rock duo The Swell Season. It won them the Oscar for best original song the following year, for the track “Falling Slowly.”
Irglová performed at the funeral service alongside Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. Together, they sang Hansard’s The Song of Good Hope alongside Thomas Bartlett and the Frames.
Before that, Hansard’s wife, Maire, reflected on the loss and became visibly emotional. “I can find no adjective for the kind of support the family has been shown this past week,” she began. “The word is hidden somewhere in the look in people’s eyes and in the depth of their good deeds. None of this could have been done without you. Most of whom I’ve not even met yet. I owe my deepest gratitude to all our good friends who have spared no effort to guide me through this time.”
