The elder Gallagher connected and inspired this island and the wider world in a deeply profound and enduring way. Last year, a statue of the guitarist was unveiled outside Belfast\u2019s Ulster Hall<\/a>, a venue he insisted on playing at a time when most live music was being cancelled during the murderous fever pitch of the Troubles. <\/p>\n His Ballyshannon birthplace also immortalised Gallagher in bronze, as did his native city of Cork with a memorial sculpture. Dublin\u2019s Temple Bar has Rory Gallagher Corner, while Ris-Orangis, a southern suburb of Paris, boasts Rue Rory Gallagher. <\/p>\n Born in Donegal and bred in Cork, via shorter stints in Derry, Birmingham and Coventry, Rory truly blossomed as a musician in Belfast, London and his favourite city in the world, Hamburg. D\u00f3nal Gallagher documents how Rory turned music on its head and influenced artists of the peerless calibre of Jimi Hendrix, The Edge, Slash from Guns N\u2019 Roses, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and BB King\u2019s guitarist Joe Bonamassa<\/a>, who contributes a glowing and loving foreword to this volume. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Rory Gallagher: Calling Card review \u2013 a fascinating celebration of one of Ireland\u2019s most influential rockersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Jamie Dickson, who holds the post of editor-in-chief of Guitarist magazine, weaves and marshals Gallagher\u2019s recollections into an entertaining narrative that straddles the old and new Irelands, chronicling how the Catholic Church<\/a> tried to close dancehalls during Lent and banish the devil\u2019s music from this sacred isle. <\/p>\n Edged in Blue is the substantial fly-on-the-wall biography by the man who knew him best that Rory aficionados have been patiently waiting for. Tragically, he died far too young, and D\u00f3nal poignantly revisits the sadness, grief and confusion of Rory\u2019s agonising final days in a London hospital. Premature death has extinguished many of our brightest musical lights in recent times, but in these revealing pages, and his classic songs, the one and only Rory Gallagher is still very much alive. <\/p>\n![\"Irish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TJRRMTA5HFBPDCEZOYNWJEQM6I.jpg\")
Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher performs at the Pop Gala at De Vliegermolen in the Netherlands on March 10, 1973. Photograph: David Warner Ellis\/Redferns <\/p>\n