{"id":573669,"date":"2026-07-29T11:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/573669\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:18:21","slug":"oscar-winning-musician-and-actor-glen-hansard-dies-in-dublin-motorbike-crash-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/573669\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar-winning musician and actor Glen Hansard dies in Dublin motorbike crash \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar winner Glen Hansard<\/a>, who found fame after starring in The Commitments and with his band The Frames, has been killed in a motorcycle crash in Co Dublin.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old died following a single-vehicle crash<\/a> at the Strawberry Beds, Lucan, just before 4.30am. <\/p>\n

According to a brief Garda<\/a> statement, which did not name Glen Hansard, the incident took place on a stretch of Lower Road, between Tinkers Hill and Rugged Lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, was treated at the scene but was pronounced deceased a short time later,\u201d the Garda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scene has been preserved for examination by Garda forensic collision investigators. Local traffic diversions are currently in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GardaíGarda\u00ed at the scene of the crash at Lower Road, Strawberry Beds, Lucan, Co Dublin. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

Glen Hansard\u2019s management issued a statement on Wednesday confirming his death. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard who passed away, in the early hours of this morning, following a road traffic accident in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlen\u2019s family is deeply shocked and heartbroken by this tragic loss and respectfully requests privacy at this extremely difficult time,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe family is grateful for the support they have received and wishes to thank the emergency services who attended the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs this matter remains the subject of an active Garda investigation, no further comment will be made at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musician and actor, a married father of one, split his time between his home in Kildare and Helsinki, where his wife, poet Maire Saaritsa, is from. The couple have a son.<\/p>\n

Hansard played Outspan Foster in The Commitments, the 1991 Alan Parker film based on Roddy Doyle\u2019s first novel, while pursuing a career in music, at first with The Frames, then as part of the duo Swell Season, and also as a solo artist.<\/p>\n

He won an Oscar in 2008 for the song Falling Slowly, which he wrote with Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1, his Swell Season partner. It featured in the movie Once.<\/p>\n

\"MarkétaMark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1 and Glen Hansard of Swell Season perform during the 2025 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. Photograph: Douglas Mason\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Hansard was from Ballymun, north Dublin and began performing with The Frames in his teenage years in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I grew up in Ballymun,\u201d he told The Irish Times in an interview earlier this year<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t make a big song and dance about it, but I grew up witnessing hardship among friends, family.<\/p>\n

\u201cBallymun gets a bad rap, but it was an incredible community. There was a great sense of meitheal. My mother didn\u2019t have any money, but she had a great sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Glen Hansard: \u2018Funny as it sounds with all the success, the money is not something that you just have\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed are appealing to anyone who witnessed the crash at Strawberry Beds to come forward. Road users who may have camera footage \u2013 including dashcam \u2013 and were travelling in the area at the time are asked to make this footage available to investigating garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to contact Lucan Garda station at (01) 666 7300, the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar winner Glen Hansard, who found fame after starring in The Commitments and with his band The Frames,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,615,109247,42,21104,43,11318,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-573669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-dublin","tag-glen-hansard","tag-headlines","tag-lucan","tag-news","tag-road-safety","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}