Oscar winner Glen Hansard, who found fame after starring in The Commitments and with his band The Frames, died in a motorcycle crash in Dublin on Wednesday morning.
The 56-year-old died following a single-vehicle crash at the Strawberry Beds, Lucan, before 4.30am.
According to a brief Garda statement, which did not name Glen Hansard, the incident took place on a stretch of Lower Road, between Tinkers Hill and Rugged Lane.
“The motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, was treated at the scene but was pronounced deceased a short time later,” the Garda said.
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Hansard had spent time in the Wren’s Nest pub on Lower Road, where he often attended trad sessions, by a group of musicians known as Trad 15, on Tuesday nights.
This week’s session had been advertised as a celebration of the Mayo footballers’ victory in Sunday’s All-Ireland final.
Hansard was travelling westwards on Lower Road when he crashed. The collision took place 2-3km from the pub where he had spent time playing music.
The emergency services were alerted to the crash just before 4.30am.
The pub told RTÉ News on Thursday that Hansard left the premises after closing time and departed eastwards.
The Wren’s Nest said a video of the singer performing a song, which was widely shared on social media, was filmed in the pub on Tuesday night.
The pub said that it wanted to clarify that it closed at the normal licensed trading hours and there was no after-hours trading or “lock-in”.
As the crash that claimed his life does not appear to have involved any other road users, a criminal investigation does not arise.
However, a Garda inquiry will still take place to help determine the cause of the crash and to prepare a file for a coroner’s inquest.
In such cases, where gardaí are preparing a file only for an inquest, a postmortem is still conducted on the remains of the deceased to determine the exact cause of death.
The postmortem process also involves a range of tests, including toxicology to establish what was in the deceased’s system. Other efforts to explain single-vehicle crashes include an examination of the vehicle, the crash site and the road leading to it.
All of the results of those examinations and inquiries will be gathered for presentation during evidence at the inquest, which often takes place several years after death.
Hansard’s agents ATC Management issued a statement on Wednesday confirming his death.
“With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning.
“We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen’s family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time.”
[ Glen Hansard: A life and music career in picturesOpens in new window ]
The musician and actor, a married father of one, split his time between his home in Kildare and Helsinki, where his wife, the poet Maire Saaritsa, is from. The couple have a son.
Hansard played Outspan Foster in The Commitments, the 1991 Alan Parker film based on Roddy Doyle’s first novel, while pursuing a career in music, first with The Frames, then as part of the duo The Swell Season and as a solo artist.
He won an Academy Award in 2008 for the song Falling Slowly, which he wrote with Markéta Irglová, his Swell Season partner. It featured in the John Carney film Once.
Glen Hansard grew up in Ballymun, north Dublin and began performing with The Frames in his teenage years in the 1980s.
“Well, I grew up in Ballymun,” he told The Irish Times in an interview earlier this year. “I don’t make a big song and dance about it, but I grew up witnessing hardship among friends, family.
“Ballymun gets a bad rap, but it was an incredible community. There was a great sense of meitheal. My mother didn’t have any money, but she had a great sense of community.”
Gardaí are appealing to anyone who witnessed the crash at Strawberry Beds to come forward.
Road users who may have camera footage and were travelling in the area at the time are asked to make this footage available to investigating gardaí.
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.
