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Lyrics, Vinyl & Visuals’ - Rory Gallagher; the man and his interests

The home of the Rory Gallagher Music Library, Cork City Libraries’ Central Library, will host a closer look at Rory’s writings, influences and samples of the music that influenced him.

  • A selection of 12 songs of Rory’s handwritten lyrics will be on show, documenting some of the drafts that developed some of his famous songs including ‘A Million Miles Away’ and ‘Shadowplay’. These song selections will also be displayed in Cork City’s parks as part of the Cork City Library’s ‘Poetry in the Park’ initiative.
  • Parks: Fitzgerald’s Park, Tramore Valley Park, Blarney Sanctuary Walkway, Ballincollig Regional Park, Gerry O’Sullivan Park, the Marina Park
  • Also, at the ‘Lyrics, Vinyl & Visuals’ exhibition will be a selection of vinyl records from Rory Gallagher's personal collection including albums by Buddy Holly, Ornette Coleman & Muddy Waters for example. Rory had amassed over 1700 albums. A digital visual catalogue of this collection is also being created so the public can view the many wonderful album covers from this unique library of music.
  • Cork City’s Central Library will also host a display of some of Rory Gallagher’s book collection and his love of crime fiction. To compliment this, the artwork from the ‘Kickback City’ Rory Gallagher album will be shown. These illustrations by the DC Comics graphic artist, Timothy Truman drew on his love of crime stories and this appeared in tandem to an exclusive novella written by the author Ian Rankin.
  • A complimentary graphic novel work, Hal Foster’s ‘Prince Valiant’ will also be on show at the library. Prince Valiant is a long running US Sunday newspaper comic strip.  Drawn by Thomas Yeates, it illustrates a medieval Celtic Warrior ‘Gallchobar’ that was based on Rory and his unmistakable likeness. The comic strip has appeared once a week since 1937.