My brother’s keeper - Guarding the legacy of the legendary Rory Gallagher

As Rory Gallagher’s ‘lost’ album is finally released, his brother Donal tells Marc O’Sullivan about guarding the guitar legend’s legacy

Fender dedicates Dublin boardroom to Rory Gallagher.

DESCENDING the stairs in Hayfield Manor Hotel in Cork, Donal Gallagher is instantly recognisable by his shock of white hair. He’s casually dressed, in slacks and a jacket, but his pointed shoes are pure rock’n’roll, and reflect on the decades he spent subsumed in the music industry, managing his brother, the late Rory Gallagher.

It’s lunch-time, there’s a function on in the foyer of the hotel, and a string quartet is playing by the staircase. Donal recognises the tune they’re performing and is suddenly spooked. “That music,” he explains a little later. “It’s a piece by Johann Pachelbel. It’s got different names: I know it as One Day We Will All Be Together. It’s the same piece of music I arranged to have played at Rory’s funeral Mass.”