EXCLUSIVE: Limerick busker (26) on 'abuse hurled' while trying to make a living

Music is at the focal point of many people's lives across the country- whether it be a hobby, a job, a passion or even as a form of therapy- music is apart of everyone's lives in one way or another.

For singer/songwriter Gerard O' Hanlon (26) from Limerick, music has been a massive part of his life since he was a young child. Music has helped Ger make a living for many years while he was couch surfing and trying to make money while pursuing his passion for music.

Ger's TikTok account has over 35,000 followers because of his talented singing voice and videos of himself busking on the streets around Limerick, Cork and across the country.

Ger said that a ship cruise company actually reached out to him through his TikTok and offered him a job but he had to turn it down because they wanted him to also dance.

Instead, Ger recently moved to London after auditioning for The Voice UK which is airing in a couple of weeks. Although Ger didn't get through to the next round, he said the experience was absolutely crazy.

"It was Will.i.am, Kelly Rowland, Tom Jones, and Tom and Danny from Mac5....walking onto the stage and seeing them in front of me was like, whoa.....the stage is massive altogether.....the amplification is built into the stage and the live band are behind you.....and the audience is in a semi-circle behind you....I sang the song....it was about a minute and 30 seconds of the song, which I cannot say because I also might be eligible for the show next year because I didn't get a chance".

Ger said that music has been a big part of his life since he was a young child growing up in a music loving family.

"There was always music around the house.......my dad...he's very influenced by music. He was in pantomimes and choirs. And my mom's family, they all play like piano or some kind of instrument. So we were taken to lessons like from a really young age, from like three or four for like traditional Irish music first...for me it was the violin and the flute".

Ger started sharing his singing talent with the world by first uploading videos on Facebook which started building his confidence and led him on then to doing singing lessons when he was 15.

Then someone encouraged Ger to go and do busking.

"It was so daunting. I mean, so daunting. It was just like, oh my God, you know, because anyone could pass you by. And that's the one thing I found with busking, you have to be really resilient when it comes to singing on the street, because you have no idea who these people are that are going to pass you. And they can say anything, you know, they can say anything, you're putting yourself in a really like exposing and vulnerable position".

Ger said that he has had a lot of negative experiences throughout his years of busking.

"You get like your money robbed, which happens so many times. Or you'll have people coming up drunk and sober trying to take the mic to sing. And it's like people forget that you're human....and like, you wouldn't go on stage at a concert and take someone's microphone, you know? They see you more like on the same level or less than, which is a weird thing to say. But I find that they look at you like an object. And I'm like, you wouldn't go up and randomly grab the microphone of someone in the middle of a gig, you know?

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"And it always seems to be particular groups of people. Like a hen party or it's, you know, the drunk bunch of fellas or something. And it's always a group thing. It's never an individual thing. And that can be really intimidating. Because then they start hurling abuse at you if you don't give them the microphone that you paid money for.

"We live world where it is very, very hard to get jobs in this society and with the housing crisis as well....busking saved me for a very long time, for at least three or four years, I was solely dependent on it...even when I was trying to get on the Dole at one point, that was taking so long that I was dependent on music alone, you know.

"And there's no funding for music or anything at the moment. And if they are giving funding to people, it's the much higher up people that already have a big fan base, you know, who don't actually really need the money, you know. They've got management who are paying for everything. And then it's the little people like me who like, my whole life is this and like, I can't get funding to like if my aunt broke or this or that, you know, like what am I meant to do then, you know? 

Ger said that most buskers are living day to day from being homeless on the streets and people do not realise that.

"I was living day to day on what I was making".

Ger said that as a gay man in Ireland he was a victim of hate-crime and homophobia while he was busking.

"It's never individual, it's always in the groups. Especially the young lads.....a lot of them, it's very, very sad. But some of them, they'd turn around and be like, I can't sing, la-da-da, and they'd laugh away. And I'd be quick back to be like, go on, so you come up and sing next to me and see who makes the money.

"You have to be quick with it because I have to shut them down very quickly or I say nothing at all. If I find I might put myself in a dangerous position, I say absolutely nothing. I just ignore them. They can hurl whatever they want, do you know, sticks and stones, but sometimes it does get to you a tiny bit because, especially being a gay man, you just get random comments.

"I'm like, what the hell does that have to do with anything, do you know? I mean, you're a singer first, you know? But it's like people feel so entitled to hurl an opinion at you. But I'm kind of like, I suppose when you go out and you're in that setting, you have to build up that little wall, you know?

Ger said that busking now in London is a different ballgame compared to Limerick.

"The thing with London is you'll get a big crowd but they're not inclined to throw you money, mostly because people don't have it here. You know, everything here is tap, tap, tap. So you have to buy, like, a card reader. And then you can set, like, a particular amount and stuff. I don't have that at the moment.

"But with Limerick or Cork or anywhere I've busked on there actually, you know, they're much more inclined to throw money, but they mightn't sit around, but they're very generous, you know? It's like they appreciate it, but they're like, I
listened for a second there, but I've got places to be, which is totally fine.

"But in London, it's all tourists, so they'll stay around, you know? But they won't throw anything. Like, even yesterday now, I was maybe 30 seconds of the song in. I can't remember what I was singing. And there were 80 people standing around within 30 seconds, you know? And then when I finished that one song, a couple stayed, a couple didn't. But I might have made it maybe two or three pounds, you know? Out of 80 people, which is mad to think about,

"And another thing is they're licensed here, and you can only do a 45-minute set, and you have to leave then to go to
another spot, and you have to queue. So I could be in a queue for four hours before I get to sing, because there's so many buskers. It's like Grafton Street, you know? It's very similar to that".

Ger described one moment when he was busking that blew his mind and is a moment he said he will never forget.

"I've had people asking to do duets with me and stuff and I've been blown away by their voices....there was this young fella, his name was David Lynch. He was 13 at the time. I think he's only 17 now at this point.

"He asked, could he come up and sing? I'd never met him in my life. I was like, sing away David. And he was one of the voices that really shocked me. I was like, Jesus, he sounds better than me! I was 23 at the time. It was like, he's better than me at 23.....I just couldn't get over how good his voice was, you know? 

"I put it up on TikTok and it got like 2 million views or something. I was like, that was insane. That was crazy. And something that felt great then was he made a TikTok account and then all the followers went to his. So it started helping him as well. And that was really rewarding in itself".