The family of the late musician Mic Christopher – whose music Glen Hansard helped keep alive over the past 25 years – are taking solace from the image of the two close friends busking together again in the afterlife.
The two prolific songwriters met as teenagers and soon became busking buddies and firm friends, then stalwarts of Dublin’s music scene in the 90s with their bands – Christopher with The Mary Janes and Hansard with The Frames.
Hansard, who died last week after coming off his motorbike in west Dublin, was at Christopher’s side in 2001 when he died in hospital following a freak accident in the Netherlands, before his acclaimed debut solo album Skylarkin’ had even been released.
The family of the late musician Mic Christopher – whose music Glen Hansard helped keep alive over the past 25 years – are taking solace from the image of the two close friends busking together again in the afterlife
Christopher’s sister Maureen, who mourned her and her brother’s late friend in St Patrick’s Cathedral this week, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘My hope would be that they’re back together again.
‘Whether it’s from a religious belief or whatever it is, I would like to think that Mic was waiting for him and that they are reunited.’
She continued with a chuckle: ‘I’d say there was a good session the first night.
‘That’s the way I’d look at it.
‘There was a big busking session going on, and there’s a few others there that have joined them since [Mic’s death].’
Her parents Harry and Vaun shared the sentiment, Maureen said.
‘My mother said she has comfort now in knowing that they’re together, and Mic’s not on his own anymore.
‘But it’s very hard, because it’s kind of reliving what they’ve been through.’
Christopher died in hospital in Groningen around two weeks after falling down steps and hitting his head in November 2001 while touring in support of The Waterboys.
Hansard and a couple of other friends were there with his family when doctors turned off his life support.
Maureen remembers Hansard offering to leave them alone as the life drained away from their son and brother.
‘We just said: “No. Look, you’ve always been there.
‘You’ve always been part of his life.
‘There’s no reason not to be here now.
‘So he was a great support to us at that time, and just such a kind-hearted person.’
Christopher’s sister Maureen, who mourned her and her brother’s late friend in St Patrick’s Cathedral this week, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘My hope would be that they’re back together again’
The Oscar-winning songwriter and sometimes actor was part of the group of musician friends who made sure Christopher’s almost-finished debut album saw the light of day after his death – and was the one who got Maureen involved in the process, she remembered.
‘Glen and another friend of ours called into me one night.
‘We were discussing it and they said, “We’re the creatives – we can do whatever needs to be done on the album.
‘But we need somebody with a kind of admin head that can pull it all together and keep everybody in check.”
‘Me in my naivety said, “Who have you got in mind? I’ll approach them, I’ll pay whoever it is to look after everything.”
‘They just looked at me like I was a bit crazy, like, “Well, it has to be you.”’
The record, released a year after Christopher’s death, won best Irish album at the Meteor Awards, and Hot Press readers later voted it number 14 in the Top 100 Irish Albums of All Time.
Hansard was instrumental in organising a number of tribute concerts for Christopher over the last 25 years, and frequently covered his songs during live shows.
‘We’d always be a part of it,’ Maureen said.
‘He would always check in with me to ask “Is it OK if I do this?”, whether it be doing a gig, using a song, whatever it may be.’
She remembers the Ballymun songwriter calling to ask if he could use one of her brother’s lyrics at the end of a new composition.
‘He just said: “I felt at the end of this song, these words just fitted in perfectly.
‘Can I put them in there?” He just wanted to be sure I was okay with it before he went ahead.
‘Mic was always there in his mind, whether it be when he was performing, writing, whatever.’
Hansard called in to see the family in Clondalkin, Dublin several times over the years, and also befriended a young neighbour – a boy with learning difficulties – who was a fan.
‘He’d take time out for him,’ Maureen said.
‘He brought him on stage on his birthday.
‘He had him performing in Vicar Street with him.’
The two prolific songwriters met as teenagers and soon became busking buddies and firm friends, then stalwarts of Dublin’s music scene in the 90s with their bands
The late Frames and Swell Season singer once sent the boy a present out of the blue, Maureen recalled.
‘It was a belt with an Elvis buckle, because Mic and Glen always wore these belts with an Elvis buckle on it.
‘So he had found one somewhere, and he just picked it up and sent it to him.
‘He just made time for people, and you felt that he genuinely had that time for you.
‘It was heartbreaking to have to go and see [her neighbour] at the weekend and just sit with him.
‘He’s heartbroken.’
Shortly before his tragic death in 2001, Christopher had credited a serious motorbike accident he suffered a couple of years earlier with reigniting his passion for music, after he’d all but given up following a series of disappointments with his band and as a solo artist.
The recovery time reinvigorated both his songwriting and outlook on life, and inspired him to pen much-loved tracks like Heyday, memorably used in an early 2000s Guinness ad starring Michael Fassbender, and Kid’s Song, chosen by Christopher’s friend and former girlfriend Sharon Horgan when she took part in the BBC’s Desert Island Discs in 2020.
Maureen said: ‘He was out of action for quite a while [after the accident], and when he got back into writing, his whole style of music changed.
‘I suppose it was like a wake-up call. He realised, “I’m not invincible.
‘There’s important things in life here,” and he wrote about more positive things.
‘It just completely changed the way he wrote and his lyrics and everything.’
Maureen says she was ‘in a daze for the first two or three days’ after Hansard’s passing in similar circumstances last week.
‘I just couldn’t take it in.
‘I’d think I was okay for a few minutes and go to do something, and then just go to pieces again.’
His send-off this week was both ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘beautiful’.
