The Irish music community and fans from across the globe are gathering in Dublin this week to mourn the sudden passing of legendary Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who died last week in a tragic single-vehicle motorcycle crash. A public wake, open to all who wish to pay their respects, is being held on Monday at the Baroque Chapel of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin’s Kilmainham neighborhood, one day ahead of Hansard’s formal funeral service.
By early Monday morning, a queue of hundreds of mourners already stretched around the IMMA grounds, with organizers projecting thousands of attendees will pass through the venue over the course of the day. Though the line moved steadily, new visitors continued to arrive through the morning, each coming to honor the musician who left an indelible mark on Irish music and culture.
For many attendees, Hansard’s music was woven into the most meaningful chapters of their lives. Ronan Buckley, who attended the wake with his wife Rebecca and their two children, Leah and Lily, explained why the whole family made the trip to pay their respects. “I’ve been to dozens of his concerts, his music was extraordinary, and his perspective on life was truly brilliant,” Buckley said. Rebecca Buckley added that the children had grown into fans through their parents’ love of Hansard’s work, calling his death “a massive loss for Ireland.”
Danni Rohde, a lifelong fan of Hansard’s long-running band The Frames, has attended roughly 50 of the group’s live shows, including one of Hansard’s final public performances at Dublin’s Trinity College on July 3. For Rohde, the band’s music shaped her formative young adult years. “That whole era of my late teens and early 20s is completely tied to Frames gigs, when they played almost every weekend,” she told reporters. “It still doesn’t feel real that he’s gone.” She attended the wake alongside her mother, Miriam Rohde Joyce, who said they felt compelled to come honor Hansard’s legacy.
Longtime fan Chris James shared his own story of connection to the musician, recalling first seeing Hansard busk on Dublin’s iconic Grafton Street 25 years ago. Waiting near the front of the queue after roughly 30 minutes in line, James said that encounter changed the course of his life. “It was one of the most incredible things I’d ever seen, and it’s one of the main reasons I picked up the guitar and started playing,” he explained. “I met him a couple of times over the years, and he was just such a lovely, totally unassuming man. He cared deeply about people, recognized how much hardship so many face, and instead of complaining about it, he just brought people together through his music.”
Hansard’s funeral service will be held Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. local time at Dublin’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. News of the musician’s sudden death sent shockwaves through the global music industry, triggering an outpouring of tributes from artists across generations. Global music stars including Ed Sheeran and Bruce Springsteen have shared their grief, with Springsteen saying he was “heartbroken” by the loss.
Over a three-decade career, Hansard built a reputation as one of Ireland’s most beloved and authentic musical voices. His most notable career milestone came in 2008, when he and collaborator Marketa Irglova won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the hit track “Falling Slowly” from the low-budget romantic musical film *Once*. The pair went on to release three full-length albums together as the duo The Swell Season, while Hansard also found critical acclaim as a solo artist. His 2016 solo record *Didn’t He Ramble* earned a Grammy Award nomination, cementing his status as a leading figure in global folk and rock music.