Rory's road at Cork Airport enshrines the memory of a true musical icon 

The road that Rory Gallagher travelled when he was 17 and heading out to play in Europe, the same road that three decades later brought him on his final journey home, has been named in his honour.

Thirty years after his death, at the age of 47, the main road at Cork Airport has been named Rory Gallagher Avenue in honour of one of Leeside’s most beloved adopted sons.

Born in Ballyshannon in 1948, Rory Gallagher spent his formative years in Cork, living with his mother Monica and his younger brother Donal over The Modern Bar on MacCurtain St, the pub owned by his grandmother, Mrs Roche.

Residency

Sixty years ago, in 1965, the day after he had completed his Leaving Cert, Rory boarded a plane for Spain, where, as the lead guitarist with The Impact, he would play an eight-week residency at a US airbase outside Madrid.

He passed away on June 14, 1995, 30 years into a career that saw him travel the world and become one the most revered musicians of all time, someone whose influence now spans generations of musicians.

Rory’s remains were flown home to Cork Airport from London for his funeral at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Dennehy’s Cross, and his later burial at St Oliver’s cemetery, Ballincollig.

Last Saturday morning, in between the showers, a ceremony was held at the airport to remember him, while Belgian guitarist Jacques Stotzem played some of Rory’s most famous compositions.

Civic reception

Unveiling the new Rory Gallagher Avenue street sign, Taoiseach Micheál Martin recalled that when he was lord mayor of Cork in 1993, he had given Rory a small civic reception after seeing him perform a sell-out concert in The Everyman in aid of Bosnian refugees who had come to Ireland.

“Which, in the current climate, it’s worth recalling and remembering,” Mr Martin said.

That civic reception had gone ahead after consultations with Donal Gallagher, and despite some misgivings from the famously shy Rory.

“It was just I felt that the city needed to recognise formally his contribution, and the following evening was very memorable [with] some 40 or 50 people in the lord mayor’s office, with the Roche family, the Gallagher family, and [Rory and Donal’s] late mother Monica,” Mr Martin said.

Scale and depth 

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, said the extensive exhibitions organised by the city to commemorate the anniversary of Rory’s passing “only touches the scale and the depth and the importance of Rory Gallagher to the cultural life of Cork and indeed to the world itself”.

Donal Gallagher said that, for Rory, coming home to Cork Airport had always a moment he deeply loved, and, on a showery morning, he recalled it had rained on the morning of Rory’s funeral, but after that, the day had been sunny.

“I said to my mother, take this as a little consolation, because you were always complaining about the weather, but now Rory’s in another place, he’s able to do such a wonderful summer for you,” he said.

Cork Airport will feature in Cork City Council’s ‘Stompin’ Ground’ heritage trail, designed to bring visitors to focal points around the city which influenced Rory’s career — including the location of the former Crowley’s Music Shop on MacCurtain St, where he bought his famous Stratocaster guitar, and venues across the city where he performed.