Glen Hansard

Glen Hansard emerged from Ballymun, Dublin, where a violent carpenter father played fiddle for travelling showbands while young Glen taught himself guitar on an instrument rescued from a prison uncle. That household of music and menace forged a singer who busked from his teens, fronted the Frames, and later wrote "Falling Slowly" with Markéta Irglová for Once. His life ended in a motorcycle accident at Strawberry Beds in July 2026, but his songs still carry the Northside's edge and tenderness.