Will U2 buy Rory's guitar at auction?

Irish rock superstars U2 might “step in” and make a bid for Rory Gallagher’s iconic 1961 Fender Stratocaster when it goes under the hammer today.

That’s according to Sheena Crowley, daughter of the late Mick Crowley, who said it’s “very likely” that a representative of U2 could attend today’s auction at Bonhams in London where the guitar is expected to go for more than €1 million.

There is also much speculation that Ireland’s National Museum may make a bid for the guitar.

Ms Crowley, whose father sold the now famous second-hand Strat to a young Rory Gallagher in Cork over 60 years ago, spearheaded a campaign to keep the guitar on Leeside after the sale of Gallagher’s collection was announced by his brother Donal earlier this year.

A GoFundMe campaign, initially set up to buy the guitar but falling short of the target, will now instead be used to buy as much of the collection as possible.

Ms Crowley said she hopes to use the €72,000 raised to buy up to five instruments from Gallagher’s collection at today’s auction which kicks off at 3pm and will be livestreamed around the world.

“I still want to secure something just in case the Government don't manage to,” Ms Crowley told the Cork Independent.

“I hope that the National Museum might go over and bid for it.

“But I also know that wealthy people are going over to bid, so I hope it's the museum that gets it, or somebody who would be willing to donate it to a museum in Cork,” she added.

Ms Crowley now hopes to create a display in the Cork Public Museum with as much of Gallagher’s collection as possible so that his legions of fans both in Ireland and overseas can come and enjoy it.

“There will be loads and loads of fans wanting to get in and a lot of them will try to bid on the cheaper instruments, so I'll have my work cut out for me,” continued Ms Crowley.

“If it was my money, I'd be brazen, but when it's not my money, it's a different thing. I'll be tense I'd say,” she added.

Ms Crowley, who now runs Crowley’s Music Centre on Friar Street in Cork city, recently heard an interview her father had done 20 years ago.

that she had never heard before. In the interview, Mr Crowley told the story of how a young Rory, while on break from school, had heard that an affordable second-hand guitar to his liking had gone on sale in Crowley's Music Store on MacCurtain Street. According to the story, Rory ran to the shop, waited for the doors to open at 2pm, and took his new guitar straight home, skipping the rest of his school day.

“So, when people ask, ‘Why is this so important?’, think about that. The youngfella waiting and not going back to school because he's blown away, he's consumed by it and he's obsessed with it, and the fact that he knew what he wanted, the sound he wanted, everything about it is so important. His destiny was already mapped out,” said Ms Crowley.

Today’s auction starts at 3pm. Visit bonhams.com for more information.