Glen Hansard’s Christmas Eve busk, with Dermot Kennedy and Róisín O, returns to Dublin streets

It was a damp and dreary night before Christmas when shoppers were treated to the return of stars busking on Dublin city streets.

Dermot Kennedy, Gavin James, Imelda May and Róisín O were among those who joined event creator Glen Hansard in singing for the supper and shelter of Dublin’s homeless population.

After a two-year eviction caused by the pandemic, the decades old Christmas Eve tradition returned to the city centre shopping streets.

From under the twinkling awning of the Gaiety Theatre, Hansard called on the hundreds gathered on South King Street to open their hearts to people in need.

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That includes those suffering homelessness and people entering the country in need of shelter, he said, adding that the two “shouldn’t be mutually exclusive”.

He was joined by two Ukrainian women, Anna and Alex, in singing Candle in the Window, dedicated to the people of Ukraine suffering “tonight and every night”. The women then led a foot-stamping Christmas carol in their native tongue.

Event organisers had sought to keep the busking location under wraps to avoid a repeat of the overcrowding of some pre-Covid years. The Dublin Simon Community promoted a hybrid event, encouraging people to catch up on the show when it is streamed online at 7.30pm.

But shortly after 4pm, an hour before the metaphorical curtain-up, people had begun to gather as they cottoned on to the reason for the erection of a makeshift stage, sound system installation and the cymbal clang of a drum kit being moved.

The rain had cleared and the street was teeming by the time Hansard arrived and the crowds joined in the chorus of Aslan’s Crazy World and Hansard’s biggest hit, Falling Slowly.

Gardaí cheerily assisted people wondering what the fuss was all about. One woman, arriving with her family too late to catch a good view of the stage, asked did one of the men look a bit like that singer Glen Hansard.

A teenage boy called over the heads to his father to warn that their parking ticket was due to expire in five minutes. The man, a few rows in front, turned to shrug at his son, before returning his gaze to the stage.

A young girl bounced on top of her father’s shoulders as the audience clapped along to Roisin O’s version of Dreams by The Cranberries.

RTÉ's studio four took up the mantle in 2020, raising €1.5 million for homeless people, while last year’s “busk was live streamed from St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Watch the performances online from 7.30pm and donate to the Dublin Simon Community at thebuskrecord.com.