The brother of Rory Gallagher has welcomed plans to honour the legendary rock and blues guitarist in the heart of the city he called his “adopted home”.
A statue of Gallagher is to be unveiled on January 4 outside Belfast’s Ulster Hall, a venue he played on numerous occasions in the 1970s and 80s.
The bronze statue, which has been up to nine years in the planning, was originally proposed by a charity dedicated to celebrating Rory Gallagher’s legacy.
However, Belfast City Council has adopted the statue project ahead of its unveiling next month – 30 years to the day since the BBC’s recording of the Rory at Midnight concert at the Ulster Hall.
The unveiling will be followed by a special screening of the Tony Palmer-directed Irish Tour ‘74 film, which includes live performances and footage of the guitarist in a war-ravaged Belfast, as well as on the streets of Cork city, where he grew up.
The Ballyshannon-born guitarist was a mainstay of Belfast music venues, firstly with his band Taste in the late 1960s and then as a solo artist.
He died in June 1995 at the age of 47.
In 2010, a statue was unveiled in the Donegal town of his birth, which annually plays host to the Ballyshannon Rory Gallagher Festival.
Dónal Gallagher, Rory’s brother and former manager for much of his career, who was in Belfast earlier this week to finalise the statue plans, said: “To me, this statue represents the shared love between Rory and the people of Belfast.
“The city was my brother’s springboard for his international career.”
Barry McGivern, a Co Down-based founding member of the Rory Gallagher Statue Project Trust, said the statue was among a number of initiatives aimed at celebrating the acclaimed guitarist’s association with Belfast.
“From the mid-1960s onwards, Rory would have played at numerous venues across Belfast and even lived for a while at a guesthouse on Cromwell Road while gigging in the city,” he told The Irish News.
“He was among the few artists who played here at the height of the Troubles, always making a point of coming back every year. He once referred to Belfast as his adopted home.”
Mr McGivern said the trust planned to launch a bursary for “a promising young, underprivileged kid – basically the next Rory Gallagher”.
“The statue’s unveiling is what we hope will be the start of bigger journey that honours Rory in the city he loved through thick and thin,” he said.
