The Stage

Ahern lends support to Luke Kelly memorial

Published Friday 31 December 2004 at 13:15 by Anthony Garvey

The decision to erect a statue in honour of former Dubliners singer Luke Kelly in the Irish capital has been backed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while a proposed memorial to another former star, blues guitarist Rory Gallagher, has run into trouble.

Dublin City Council has approved plans for the permanent tribute to Kelly, who collapsed on stage and was subsequently discovered to have a brain tumour. Despite several operations, the condition proved fatal and he died 20 years ago next month. Ahern described the singer as “an outstanding figure” and praised his “huge contribution to the cultural and artistic life of Ireland” and added that it was fitting that there should be a monument to commemorate him.

The cost and style of the statue, to be erected in Dublin’s north inner city, an area with which the singer was closely associated, is currently being considered by the council’s arts and culture committee. There have been calls for a life size bronze statue of the charismatic performer, best remembered for his distinctive voice, wild red hair and colourful outfits.

Meanwhile, plans to erect a bronze guitar-shaped memorial to Gallagher on the National Photographic Archive building in Dublin’s Temple Bar is being opposed by the Irish National Library, which runs the archive. The site, at Meeting House Square, was chosen because it has been officially renamed Rory Gallagher Corner. But the library authority argues that to allow a bronze replica Fender Stratocaster to be erected on a wall of the archive, as planned, would suggest it had something to do with music, when it hasn’t.

More than 2,000 Gallagher fans and musicians, some from as far away as Texas and Brazil, have inundated a website for the project with messages protesting at the attitude of the National Library. Project director Mark Walsh said funding for the memorial was already assured and that he is hoping for a change of mind on the siting.

Gallagher, who had a formidable reputation as a blues and rock guitarist, died unexpectedly nine years ago at the age of 47. Walsh said that there is a street in Paris named after him and a memorial plaque at the site of the Star Club in Hamburg, beside one for the Beatles. He said: “The last gig Rory played was the Temple Bar Blues Festival. This replica guitar will be a very simple tribute to him and it makes no sense to locate it anywhere other than at Rory Gallagher Corner.”