By Isabel Colleran. 

Isabel Ní Challaráin explores what attracts musicians to busking on Grafton Street and Suffolk Street and asks, is it worth standing in the cold?

A lot of famous names started their music career busking on Grafton Street including Bono, Keywest, Kodaline and Glen Hansard.

Richie Smith from upstate New York was playing the bagpipes behind Molly Malone’s statue last Tuesday morning. He plays small gigs in pubs two or three times a week and said that he enjoys the freedom of busking. 

“I have my own schedule and it makes sense to me if you dedicate yourself to it,” he told The City. “It doesn’t bother me too much to go out every day and just do it.”

With the freedom of busking there are opportunities to perform on streets around the world. Richie’s been to Liverpool before to busk but he mostly does it around Dublin these days. 

Smith described the money he earns while busking as unpredictable. He added: “It’s hard work but it’s worth it”. 

When asked about the cold, he said, “it’s okay if you prepare for it. It is kind of miserable but if you make the decision to busk it is part of it, so you have to get on with it.”

Two buskers that are also feeling the cold on Grafton Street are Ella Mieri and Guilherme Leal from Brazil. “Luckily today is a sunny day but our plan is to find some pubs to play in during the winter because it is very cold out.”

They started busking together three months ago when they met on the busking circuit. Mieri is still learning English which she says has been her biggest challenge since she moved to Ireland. She said, “the language is very difficult especially when I’m trying to sing. Before I moved here, I spoke zero English so I need to read more and improve quickly.”

Leal said his biggest challenge as a street performer was to connect his style with Mieri’s and ensure that his guitar was in tune with Mieri’s voice. They perform a wide range of songs together a few days a week from ‘I want to hold your hand’ by the Beatles to ‘Falling’ by Harry Styles. 

Mieri went viral on TikTok at Halloween time while singing ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries with Allie Sherlock. The video gained 13 million views within its first week on the app and Mieri is proud to say she is now known as ‘Mysterious Crazy Ginger Woman’.  

Mieri and Leal both hope that with more time and practice they will improve and venture into more performances indoors. “We don’t feel we are prepared for pubs or indoor live music yet. We are practicing some songs together and you never know what will happen in the future.” 

Mieri says “I want to be a better singer. People pay attention to our improvement and show us by giving us more money which is always good.”

The 2015 Busking Bye-Laws outlined a lot of rule changes including a 50-metre gap between each busker and a six-week probation period for all new busker applications. Buskers can only stay on Grafton Street for one hour at a time and they are no longer able to play backing tracks when they perform. 

A street performer permit for Dublin City area costs €30 each year. This permit must be clear and visible during all performances and there is a separate cost if the performer is using an amp.

Each busker must start and finish their performance on the hour. The Bye-Laws do not allow performers to play in the same location twice in the same day. This creates a queuing system and allows more buskers to perform during the strict time limits between 9 am and 11 pm set for performances.