Donal Gallagher to publish Rory Gallagher memoir as festival counts cost
Donal Gallagher will publish Edged In Blue: A Rock and Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher on Nov. 26 through Red Stripe Press, putting his years beside his late brother into print, according to Billboard.
The book chronicles the musical journey of Rory Gallagher, who died in 1995. Donal knew that journey from close range. He worked first as roadie, then as road manager and business manager.
He now manages the estate, including its Strange Music publishing assets, the rights to songs as written works that pay songwriters. He also works with UMe, the catalogue division of Universal Music Group, to promote Rory Gallagher's recorded catalogue.
The path to that role was not straightforward. Rory Gallagher died without a will, and his mother was the immediate beneficiary of his estate. After she died in 2010, Donal became the beneficiary overseeing the estate, aided by his children Daniel and Eoin.
The catalogue he oversees is large. Rory Gallagher recorded two studio albums and two live albums with Taste, a band he founded. As a solo artist, he recorded 11 studio albums and three live albums under his own name before his death.
Ownership of those recordings has shifted over time. In 1971, Rory Gallagher signed a new six-album deal with Polydor that included ownership reversion, a clause returning the rights to him, seven years after delivery of the last album. He was out of the Polydor contract by 1975, and the catalogue reverted to him in 1982. Around 2017, Donal sold the master recordings, the original recordings that generate royalties, to UMG.
Live celebration continues alongside the archive work. The Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival is an annual rock and blues music festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, Ireland that honours Rory Gallagher, according to its official site. The 2026 edition went ahead, with organisers thanking supporters in a post titled ‘Rory Gallagher Festival - Update / Situation / Future’ on Facebook.
That edition was hit financially. The festival was deprived of half its revenue due to the collapse of its ticketing service. For a small annual event, that is a sharp loss. Crew wages, hire costs and artist fees still fall due.
Belfast has also marked the connection. Ulster Hall hosted a day of celebration for a Rory Gallagher statue unveiling, according to the official Rory Gallagher site.
What makes this stand out is the mix of memory and management. For fans, this means one book in November, a festival finding its footing, and a catalogue whose paper trail stretches from a 1970s reversion clause to a streaming-era archive.
