Bono, Eddie Vedder among mourners at the funeral of Oscar-winning songwr…

Glen Hansard's Funeral

Hundreds of mourners gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin to pay their respects to Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who died in a motorcycle crash last week at the age of 56, according to ocregister.com.

The funeral service was attended by Irish musicians and entertainers, including Bono, Eddie Vedder, Hozier, Declan O’Rourke, and Imelda May, as well as actors Steve Coogan and Chris O’Dowd. A large crowd watched on big screens outside as pallbearers carried a wicker coffin topped with flowers into the cathedral, as reported by ocregister.com.

William Morton, the dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, praised Hansard’s remarkable gifts and outstanding talent, which 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, according to ocregister.com.

U2’s Bono also paid tribute to Hansard, saying that everyone who met him 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 Hansard’s family and friends, before reciting lyrics to U2’s “Beautiful Day”, as reported by ocregister.com.

Hansard’s widow, Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, thanked the police officers who came to his aid and read a poem she had written for him early in their relationship. She said that the couple’s 3-year-old son was too young to attend or understand the funeral, but that the bright spirit he inherited from his father was with them, according to ocregister.com.

Glen Hansard was the longtime frontman 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 of “Once” won eight Tony Awards in 2012, as reported by ocregister.com.

Hansard was also 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, according to ocregister.com.

Tributes have been paid by fellow musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, who said on Instagram that he was “heartbroken” at the loss of “a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man”, as reported by ocregister.com.

The funeral service was a celebration of Hansard’s life and music, with many of his friends and colleagues paying tribute to his talent and generosity. As the mourners said their final goodbyes, they remembered Hansard as a true original, a musician who had touched the hearts of people all over the world with his unique voice and spirit, according to ocregister.com.