Glen Hansard Dies at 56 in Dublin Motorcycle Crash After Pub Session

Q: How will the music world honor the poignant final album he released just weeks before his tragic late-night motorcycle crash?

The music world is likely to honor Hansard’s final release by turning it into a living memorial: public performances, tribute concerts, charity-linked events and renewed attention to the songs themselves. Just weeks before his death, Hansard had remained creatively active, with the new Swell Season album *Forward* released earlier this month, while reports also describe his last release as *Don’t Settle*, a live project revisiting songs from across his career. In practice, both are now being framed as part of his final artistic chapter. That makes commemorations likely to focus not only on streaming and reissues, but on live communal performance, which was central to his identity. The pattern is already visible. A large crowd in Dublin has sung “Falling Slowly” in tribute, a public wake at IMMA featured trad musicians, and his funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral is set to include music by friends and family. A separate celebration of life in New York will screen an intimate 2023 Hansard set and raise money for causes tied to him, including the Simon Community and Ukrainian Action. Given Hansard’s reputation as a performer who made rooms feel communal and cinematic, the strongest tribute to his final album will probably be artists and fans performing its songs in that same spirit. Expect benefit concerts, dedicated covers by peers, memorial busks in Dublin, and proceeds or donations directed toward the homelessness and community causes he championed.

Q: With his sudden passing, who will step up to lead the iconic Dublin Christmas busks that raised millions for the homeless?

No successor has been announced, and it is not yet clear that any one person will replace Glen Hansard as the public face of the Dublin Christmas Eve busk. What is clear is that Hansard built the event into a major annual fundraiser for the Dublin Simon Community, beginning in 2010 and helping raise more than €2 million for homelessness services. The busk was closely tied to him personally: he used his standing in Irish music to gather big-name performers on Grafton Street or nearby, turning it into both a charity event and a statement about homelessness in Dublin. In the immediate aftermath of his death, the strongest sign of continuity has come from the community he helped create rather than from a named heir. Musicians quickly staged a memorial busk near the Gaiety Theatre, close to the traditional Christmas Eve site, organised by Ballymun musician Jamie Harrington. That tribute suggested that the event could continue as a collective effort led by friends, fellow buskers and artists from Hansard’s circle. The most likely scenario is that Dublin Simon Community, together with musicians long associated with Hansard’s busk, will try to preserve the tradition in his memory. Figures from the wider Irish music community such as Bono, Damien Dempsey, Imelda May, Glen’s fellow Frames members and other regular participants would be the natural people to help carry it forward, but no formal leadership plan has yet been confirmed.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Aug 3

Hansard died last week at 56 in a late-night motorcycle accident in Dublin after performing at a traditional music session in an Irish pub.
The Irish musician was best known for fronting The Frames and for the 2007 film Once, which led to an Oscar-winning breakthrough with co-star and co-writer Marketa Irglova in 2008.
John Carney, Bono and other admirers remembered Hansard as a magnetic live performer and generous presence, with tributes stressing both his busking roots and his care for vulnerable people.
His death has renewed focus on a career that bridged music and film, from The Commitments to Once and decades of concerts that made him a cult figure well beyond Ireland.