The funeral of Glen Hansard is underway at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin

Hot Press has joined the thousands of mourners, some of whom were queueing before daybreak, for the 'Celebration of the life of Glen Hansard' which is taking place this afternoon at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

Among those in attendance are Captain Paul O'Donnell representing President Connolly, Commandant Joe Glennon who's representing the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Michael Jackson, Eddie Vedder, Bono and Ali Hewson, Steve Coogan, Hozier, Imelda May, Jerry Fish, Chris O'Dowd, Finbar Furey, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Paddy Casey, Declan O'Rourke, Angeline Ball, Gerry Adams and Hot Press publishers Niall Stokes and Mairin Sheehy.

In a poignant moment at the start of the service, his Frames comrade Colm Mac Con Iomaire brought a guitar to the altar where Glen's wicker coffin is adorned with family photos of his wife, Maire and son, Christy.

Colm then joined Liam Ó Maonlaí and other friends in performing an instrumental version of Bob Dylan's 'Forever Young'.

This was followed by Eddie Vedder, Markéta Irglová, Thomas Bartlett and The Frames joining forces on Glen's 'The Song Of Good Hope'; his elder brother Gary Hansard accompanied by Frank Killeen on 'I Can See God'; Colm, Lisa O'Neill, Joseph Doyle and Michael Buckley performing Lisa's 'Old Note' lament; and Damien Dempsey – "Say 'hello' to Sinéad, Shane, Christy, all the soul singers," he told Glen – leading the way on his own 'Sing All Our Cares Away'.

All of them have been greeted with the sort of rapturous gig-like applause and cheers the family have requested for this celebration of Glen's life.

After playing Patti Smith's phone message to him in honour of Glen, Bono recited a re-worked version of 'Beautiful Day', a song that Glen helped him blast out as part of the annual Christmas Dublin Busk. It's all been incredibly powerful and moving...

Paying tribute to his big brother, Richard Hansard noted that: "Glen once said that when you lose someone, you don't really lose them, you inherit the best parts of them. And if you have the strength and the will, you will gain them back and you will inherit the best parts of them. And we have.

"We have inherited all the magical, colourful words, hugs, talks, madness, sadness, insightful manic beauty that a brother, a husband, a father could ever give."

If you're unable to attend, the funeral service is being live-streamed below: