Glen Hansard’s heartbroken wife Maire Saaritsa told how the couple found ‘truth and beauty side by side’ through their son Christy.
The Finnish poet addressed crowds of mourners in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin on Tuesday at his funeral mass.
The Oscar-winning musician died in a motorcycle accident last Wednesday, July 29, near the Strawberry Beds in Lucan, Dublin.
Taking a deep breath as she fought back tears at the altar, Maire began by thanking Gardai Keith Cribbin, Lucy Byrne, Adam Heffernan, Jordan Walsh, and Gareth McCardle, who found Glen on the roadside and showed her humanity in her ‘most desperate hour’.
She said: ‘I would like to begin by thanking Gardai Keith Cribbin, Lucy Byrne, Adam Heffernan, Jordan Walsh, and Gareth McCardle for coming to Glen’s aid after the accident, and for the humanity they showed me in my most desperate hour.
‘I can find no adjective for the kind of support the family has been shown this past week. The word is hidden somewhere in the look in people’s eyes and in the depth of their good deeds.
‘None of this could have been done without you. Most of whom I’ve not even met yet. I owe my deepest gratitude to all our good friends who have spared no effort to guide me through this time.
‘As Glen’s wife, I want to thank him for the life we shared, searching for truth and beauty side by side. We found it in our son, Christy. He cannot be here today. He is too young to witness or understand an event of such scale.’
She told mourners at a packed St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin that Christy ‘inherited’ Glen’s ‘bright spirit’ before ending her eulogy with a poem she ‘penned for Glen in return for the songs he wrote for me.’
Glen’s brother Richard Hansard also paid tribute to the late singer, opening up about how he was ‘the glue to so many’.
He said: ‘Glen Hansard, the musician. Glen Hansard, from The Frames, Glen Hansard, the boss, the glue to so many, is with us all, even now, and he has all these things.
‘But before Glen was any of these, he was a son, a brother, and I promise you, a mad uncle. Glen was an older brother for Dylan. Between Dylan, my twin brother, and I, there’s a 16-year age gap. This means that Glen was more than an older brother; he was a father figure.’
He said he had a ‘unique ability to listen in and give them his full attention’.
‘Glen wanted to know, to really know what was going on deeply, not just on the surface, not just the day to day. He wanted to know everything: your weakness, your struggles, who you were.’
He said Glen ‘made me feel that the world was a far more magical place’ than it seemed at the time to a ‘young, shy boy from North Dublin.’
‘He sang songs. He was a storyteller. He would come in and turn the evening around, and it was easy to look up and be inspired.
‘But also, he did the hard work. He wanted us to be better when we realised more than we realised that we could be.
‘For his little brothers, he did those hard stuff. He instilled morals, a moral compass. He took responsibility and would say, “You’re not doing that. You’re not missing school. You’re not spray-painting walls. You’re not getting tattoos on your belly of a Finnish golf metal band you only listened to for two months’.
‘He pushed us when we weren’t doing our best. He saw what we were going to be, not just what we were at the time.
‘Sometimes, that meant dragging us, kicking and screaming, and throwing us into the back of his Nissan Micra to drag us down to school when we refused to go, and on the way he promised us that if our uniforms weren’t on by the time we got there, we were going in in our underwear, and he meant it, and he did this even after getting in at 5 a.m. from gigging the night before.’
He also told how Glen always would call Gary for help ‘when the chips were down’.
‘Even though Glen had everybody in the world on speed dial, he still called Gary when the chips were down and he needed somebody. I know that Glen made ripples. I know he made waves. He had an impact on so many. Look at this room. But those first ripples and waves began at kitchen tables in Ballymun and Killester, and it’s at those kitchen tables that, for us, he will remain.’
Glen’s brother Gary thanked everyone before performing I Can See God with Frank Killeen.
He said: ‘I would like to speak for my family and say we want to say how absolutely blown away and humbled and so thankful we are for the incredible, huge amount of love and honour and dignity that the people of this country and around the world have shown to my brother.’
Among those who paid tribute included U2 front man Bono, who read out a poem version of the band’s hit song, entitled A Beautiful Day.
Six pallbearers carried Glen’s wicker coffin to and from the cathedral, which was adorned with flowers made up of a mixture of ivy, white snapdragons, red hypericum, white hydrangeas and ivy.
Music was performed by an abundance of Glen’s friends, including Glen’s former partner and bandmate, Marketa Irglova, who performed The Song of Good Hope, alongside Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, The Frames and Thomas Bartlett.
Old Note was performed by Lisa O’Neil, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Joseph Doyle and Michael Buckley, Damien Dempsey and The Frames sang Sing all our cares away, while Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Seamus Ong and Liam O’Maonlai performed Port na bPucai.
His coffin was carried out to Bob Dylan’s Forever Young, which was performed by Liam Ó Maonlaí and friends, which included Bono, The Edge and Imelda May.
Glen was cremated in a private ceremony after his funeral.
In a statement, his family said: ‘Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who came today to celebrate Glen’s life.
‘We are so grateful for your kindness, your messages and all the wonderful memories shared by family and friends here, at home, in Ireland and from across the world.
‘Your support has been a great comfort to us all.
