Up for sale: Cork lord mayor calls for Rory Gallagher's guitar to stay ...

Although born in Co Donegal, Gallagher spent his formative years in Cork, and the city’s lord mayor believes the guitar should be acquired for the Irish people. “It is totemic, especially for Cork. Bought at Crowley's Music Store and memorably played many times in concerts at Cork City Hall, from where Rory went on culturally to take on the world. It would be and should be pride of place here,” said Cllr Boyle, the Green Party politician who is also a keen music fan.

“It's hoped that whoever gets to acquire it would make it available publicly in Cork,” added Cllr Boyle, echoing a sentiment widely expressed on the airwaves and on social media when the news of the auction broke on Tuesday.

Rory Gallagher's iconic Fender Stratocaster is being put up for auction via Bonhams in London.

Gallagher famously acquired the 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 on hire-purchase from Crowley’s Music Shop in Cork as a 15-year-old in 1963, and kept the instrument through stellar career in which he attained a reputation as one of the greatest guitarists on the planet before his death in 1995, at the aged 47.

Rory Gallagher in Crowleys music shop in 1974. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive 

Dónal Gallagher, Rory's brother and former manager, indicated it was a difficult decision to put the guitar and other items up for sale.

 "After nearly thirty years since my brother Rory's passing, I now believe it's time for other people to cherish Rory's 'orphaned' 1961 Fender Stratocaster and the rest of his incredible instrument collection,” said Dónal.

“Since 1995, I have always felt that there was a mission to be fulfilled to cement Rory's legacy and widen the knowledge of his music. So, in what is one of the most difficult and sensitive decisions to reach, I have decided to facilitate the release of his instruments for sale, so that these emblems of his legacy can be enjoyed by others.” 

So who might buy the precious icon? While the price quoted by Bonham’s auctioneers would be beyond the regular budget of such institutions as Cork Public Museum or the city’s music library (which is named after Gallagher), the Government can allocate additional funding for special purchases of items of significant cultural value. 

Section 1003 of taxation legislation would also allow a private purchaser to redeem 80% of the value as a tax credit if they donated the guitar to a public institution.

Rory Gallagher in his first ever newspaper photograph, pictured on the roof of the Cork Examiner/Evening Echo in Academy Street in 1961. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive 

The Edge of U2, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and Slash of Guns N’Roses are among the guitarists who’ve expressed their admiration of Gallagher through the years. 

Brian May of Queen once commented on Gallagher: "He was one of a very few people at that time, who could make his guitar do anything it seemed, it just seemed to be magic. I remember looking at this battered Stratocaster and thinking ‘How does that come out of there? How does he do that?’“ 

President Michael D Higgins is also a big fan of the Cork guitarist, and one of the walls of Áras features a photograph of Rory Gallagher and Phil Lynott playing together.

Kurt Cobain holds the top two spots in the chart of the most expensive guitars ever sold, with his Martin D-18E used during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged session selling for $6,010,000 (€5,500,000) in 2020, and his Fender Mustang going for $4,550,000 in 2022.

 Closer to the valuation of Gallagher’s guitar is the Strat that Bob Dylan used at Newport Folk Festival in 1965, which was sold for $965,000 in 2013.