The late Glen Hansard – who has died at the age of 56 – used his voice as much for his poetic folk melodies as he did for social causes.
He played at venues great and small across Ireland, and had just completed a set of summer gigs at Trinity College in Dublin three weeks ago, ahead of a tour of Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia planned for this October.
The Ballymun musician’s career began as a teenager busking in Grafton Street, after he was encouraged by his headteacher to pursue music and left school at 13.
He later returned to the Grafton Street area to lead annual charity busks in aid of the Irish capital’s homeless.
The event came about after an impromptu busk by Hansard in 2010, after he told a group of carolers fundraising for the Simon Community on the day before Christmas Eve that he did not have time to sing with them.
“They were shaking the buckets and they said ‘Ah how are ya Glen, give us a song’, and whatever mood I was in, whatever head space I was in, I was just like, ‘I can’t now, if I’m coming back the street later on…’
“I went home and felt bad. I’ll come into town tomorrow, I’ll take out me guitar, I’ll do a bit of busking and I’ll make sure they’ll get it, thinking they might still be on the street.
“They weren’t on the street the day after, so I took out my guitar and started playing.”
He said other Irish artists on the streets of Dublin on Christmas Eve passed him and joined in – including Mundy, Damien Dempsey, and Imelda May – and raised money for the Dublin Simon Community.
His first big break came with a role in 1991 Irish comedy drama The Commitments, based on the book by Roddy Doyle, but he later said he regretted taking part as it distracted from the music.
He was the frontman of rock band The Frames, who released six studio albums and had a major cultural impact in Ireland, supporting the development of upcoming acts such as Damien Dempsey, Mundy and Paddy Casey.
L-R Danny O’Reilly of the Coronas and Glen Hansard take part in the annual Christmas Eve busk in aid of the Dublin Simon Community outside the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)
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The band were the support act for Bob Dylan’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2007.
He is probably best known for the Oscar-winning song Falling Slowly, co-written with Markéta Irglová, who co-starred with him in the film Once.
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In the film Hansard played the familiar role of a busker on Grafton Street.
In his Oscar acceptance speech, Hansard urged people to “make art”.
Hansard married Finnish woman Maire Saaritsa in 2022 and the couple have a three-year-old son, Christy.
The family split their time between Finland and Ireland, and Hansard spoke about his son on RTÉ’s the Late Late Show this year, saying leaving him was “the hardest bit” about going away on tour.
Hansard went on to form folk rock duo The Swell Season with Once co-star Irglová.
His latest release, Don’t Settle, has 22 songs spanning more than three decades of Hansard’s work, with reimagined versions of his work with The Frames and The Swell Season.
Oscar-winning singer Glen Hansard busks for homeless charity the Simon Community in Dublin in 2011 (Niall Carson/PA)
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Hansard was a vocal advocate for people experiencing homelessness, supporting organisations including Dublin Simon Community and the Peter McVerry Trust through benefit concerts, fundraising busks and public campaigning on Ireland’s housing crisis.
He was a member of the Home Sweet Home group, which took part in the high-profile occupation of an empty office block at Apollo House in 2016.
Dean Scurry, who helped lead the occupation, said that around 10 years ago, he met Hansard at a jazz gig and told him about the thousands of homeless people in the Irish capital.
“And he said, ‘What you want to do about it?’. And I said, ‘Well, you might need to walk into hell with me’,” he told RTÉ Radio.
“And he said, ‘I’ll do that, I’ll do that’. And he done it in such a lovely and honest way.”
He said Hansard started ringing philanthropists in Los Angeles and Eddie Vedder, lead vocalist for Pearl Jam.
“That’s what he could do in spades, he could weave a story,” he said.
