Bono, Eddie Vedder and Hozier among mourners at Glen Hansard’s funeral

Stars from the world of music including U2’s Bono, Pearl Jam’s lead singer Eddie Vedder, and Hozier, attended the funeral of Glen Hansard on Tuesday.

The 56-year-old Oscar-winning Irish singer and songwriter died in a motorcycle crash in Dublin last week.

Hansard, who shot to prominence in 1991 musical comedy film The Commitments, was long-time frontman of acclaimed rock band The Frames.

News of his sudden death shocked the music world and fans alike, with tributes being paid from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Bruce Springsteen, who said he was “heartbroken”.

Many people also paid their respects at a public wake in the city on Monday.

The funeral was held in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin on Tuesday and featured musical performances by friends and family.

Mourners included Bono, Eddie Vedder, Hozier, The Edge, Steve Coogan, Imelda May, Paddy Casey, Declan O’Rourke, and Angeline Ball, who starred alongside Hansard in the BAFTA-winning comedy-drama The Commitments.

Representatives of the President of Ireland Catherine Connolly and the Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin were also among the mourners.

At the start of the service, a guitar was brought up to the altar by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, a former Frames band member.

Mac Con Iomaire went on to perform a song for those gathered alongside Liam Ó Maonlaí.

Irish traditional musician Breandáin Ó Beaglaoich said Hansard “was so well known on the big stages of Ireland and all over the world”.

He described him as an “ordinary kind-hearted Ballymun man.. a true Dub.” Ó Beaglaoich also performed a song.

Many of Hansard’s other famous friends performed in the ceremony including U2 frontman Bono, Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí, and singer-songwriters Damien Dempsey and Lisa O’Neill.

Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, and Hansard’s former partner and bandmate Markéta Irglová – who won an Oscar alongside him – performed Hansard’s The Song of Good Hope.

Glen Hansard’s widow, the Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, thanked her late husband “for the life we shared, searching for truth and beauty side by side”.

Fighting back tears, she said they found that truth and beauty in their three-year-old son, Christy.

“He cannot be here today, he is too young to witness or understand an event of such scale,” she says.

But she added: “The bright spirit he inherited from his father is with us.”

Irish superstar Bono recited U2’s song A Beautiful Day. As the recital ended he began to sing the song, urging the congregation to join in.

U2’s lead guitarist The Edge also attended the service and approached the microphone to join in the version of Beautiful Day as his band-mate Bono finished his recital.

At the end of the service, the coffin left the church to a musical send-off, with mourners inside the building continuing to sing along to a rendition of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young.

Hansard’s life was steeped in music, from first picking up a guitar as a teenager right until the final hours of his life, when he was performing in a traditional music session.

His career spanned more than three decades, including winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008 with Marketa Irglova, which featured in the low-budget musical romance film Once.

He and Irglova released three albums as The Swell Season, while Hansard also encountered success as a solo artist with 2016 album Didn’t He Ramble being nominated for a Grammy in 2016.

He formed The Frames one year before The Commitments, going on to record six studio albums including Dance The Devil, For The Birds and Irish chart topper Burn The Maps.

Hansard also released five solo albums up to 2023’s All That Was East Is West Of Me.

The musician, who became a father three years ago, has also been hailed by charities for his work in raising money for the homeless.

In 2010, he started an annual Christmas Eve busk in Dublin City Centre, which attracted high-profile musicians including Sinéad O’Connor and Shane McGowan.

Hansard’s friend, artist Colin Davidson, said the busk had become “an international Irish institution in its own right”.

Following Hansard’s death, many people travelled to sign a book of condolence in Temple Bar in Dublin.

And thousands of fans queued to pay tribute to the musician, during his public wake on Monday.

Fans spoke about going to his concerts and seeing him busking on the street.

Danni Rohde, a fan of Hansard’s band, The Frames, said it “doesn’t feel real”.

Another fan, Chris James, said he saw Hansard busking for the first time 25 years ago on Dublin’s Grafton Street.

“I thought it one of the coolest things I’d ever seen and one of the reasons I picked up and started playing guitar,” he said.

One fan described his death as a loss to Ireland.