Taking a trip back to Gallagher's hometown

A walking tour and new documentary are shining the spotlight back on Rory Gallagher, writes Barry Roche

It may not be quite as elaborate as the Beatles tours of Liverpool but a new guide and map is helping fans of bluesman Rory Gallagher find some of the places that had a formative influence on the ace guitarist in his native Cork.

Although born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, he grew up in Cork and it was on Leeside that he embarked on his musical career, first with the Fontana Showband then the Impact and Taste before becoming a solo artist.

Now, blues fan and Gallagher authority, RTÉ producer Marcus Connaughton, has produced a map showing places around Cork city associated with Gallagher. He has also conducted a series of walking tours for devoted fans.

The idea for it came after Connaughton read a letter in a newspaper from a Spanish fan, Juan Casas Rigall, who wrote about coming to Cork to see where his hero grew up. "Rory Gallagher's music has been a fundamental influence in Spain. Those of us who were born during Franco's dictatorship and got to know democracy as adolescents knew Rory to be the Irish musician who was second to none," he wrote.

"Every year, visiting Cork is a must and during every stay in the city, walking through the nooks and crannies which Rory frequented is always a melancholic pleasure," writes Juan in a piece included in the guide map.

Last year, Connaughton gave a lecture in Cork City Library on Gallagher's legacy and this year to coincide with the 10th anniversary of his death, and the launch of an exhibition entitled Remembering Rory, he began taking fans around some of the haunts that helped shaped the guitarist's life and music. One of the stops is Crowley's Music Store. Although moved now from Merchant's Quay to MacCurtain Street - where Gallagher's mother who died just last week ran a pub - the shop has become a touchstone for fans.

"You get fans from Japan, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, all dropping in there - some just come in to look - they're too shy to approach Michael Crowley, but some will hang around and try and get a few words about him selling Rory his Fender Stratocaster." The story of how Gallagher came to own the much-prized Fender Stratocaster is best told by Connaughton on the tour, but briefly, Gallagher owed much to the Royal Showband in Waterford ordering the guitar only to send it back when it clashed with their new outfits.

Also featured on the tour is St Kieran's College which Gallagher attended while with the Fontana Showband; and Rainbow Records, whose owner, Pat Egan, championed Gallagher from his Taste days with Eric Kitteringham and Norman Damery.

"I didn't want to give too much of the story in the map," says Connaughton, "but on the tour, I relate anecdotes about some of the haunts. The map bears testament to the buildings that have survived, like the Savoy where Taste played support to The Dubliners in 1967." The map was recently launched by Cork's Lord Mayor Deirdre Clune who recalled visits to Leaders' or Cronins' clothes shops to buy the lumberjack check shirts and denims that were de rigeur for Gallagher fans whenever he came back to play in Cork.

"My abiding memory from the Rory Gallagher days is of his Christmas-time concerts in the City Hall. For days, even weeks beforehand the anticipation would build around town," she recalls.

"The excitement reached fever pitch on the night of the concert . . . I'll never forget the euphoric eruption from the crowd in response to the opening line of Going to My Hometown." Some 10,000 copies of the map have been printed and are available throughout Cork.

Details of walking tours at www.rorygallagherwalk.com

Marcus Connaughton's six-part documentary on Gallagher is on RTÉ Radio One, Sundays, 11.12pm.

The Remembering Rory Exhibition continues until Sept 3