IT’S not often that a government steps in to try to save a musical instrument for the nation, but that is what has happened after it was announced that a guitar played by the late Rory Gallagher is to be auctioned.

The battered, much-played Fender Stratocaster will go on sale for an estimated £700,000- £1million at Bonhams, in London, in October. Gallagher, one of rock music’s most renowned and distinctive guitarists, died, aged just 47, in June 1995, and is widely revered to this day.

To date, two GoFundMe appeals have been launched to keep the vintage 1961 guitar in Gallagher’s native Ireland, and even the Irish goverment is getting involved. The Irish Times reported on July 15 that Tánaiste Micheál Martin is exploring ways in which the State might purchase the guitar before it goes on sale.

The Lord Mayor of Cork, the city in which Gallagher grew up, has called on the Government to intervene to buy the guitar.

The Bonham’s auction will feature the Stratocaster and other Gallagher guitars and amplifiers.

In 1963 the highly distinctive Strat was sold, secondhand, to Gallagher for £100 on credit by Michael Crowley, owner of Crowley’s Music Store, in Cork. Legend has it that it was the first Stratocaster ever to reach Ireland.

The Bonham’s auction will feature the Stratocaster and other Gallagher guitars and amplifiers.

Crowley’s daughter, Sheena, has launched a GoFundMe appeal, with a €1m target, to keep the fabled guitar in Ireland. “This guitar means so much to us in Cork, and we need to become the custodians of that magical guitar", she writes on the appeal page. “Rory has been the idol and inspiration to so many musicians in Ireland for half a century. We feel tied to him and the guitar is a symbol of what he represents for us”.

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The aim, she added, is to set up a music museum in Cork, incorporating traditional and modern music, “showcasing the marching bands, ceili bands, showbands, rock bands, punk bands and so on, We have so much music heritage in Cork, and there are hundreds of families with so many great stories and so much memorabilia that should be shared and displayed”. The main attraction would be a dedicated Gallagher section with an interactive theme.

Another GoFundMe appeal, with a €100,000 target, has been initiated by the Dublin-based Irish Rock'n'Roll Museum Experience, which says: “This guitar is a symbol of Ireland's rock history, and it deserves to be showcased in the iconic Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll Museum Experience where it can inspire future generations”.

On top of all of this, a huge, 20-disc set - Rory Gallagher: The BBC Collection - is being released on October 11. It includes eighteen CDs containing radio concerts and sessions recorded between 1971 and 1986, and two Blu Ray discs of BBC TV concerts and studio performances from 1973 to 1984.

Three-quarters of the audio recordings have not been officially released before, while the concerts on the Blu Ray discs being officially released for the first time.

In addition, 2CD and triple-LP ‘The Best of Rory Gallagher at the BBC’ sets will be released, featuring eleven of Gallagher’s best BBC studio recordings and a thirteen track (twelve on 3LP) 1979 BBC In Concert Live from The Venue performance.

The audio and visual records in the collection underline Gallagher’s formidable talents on the guitar, as well as the raw, captivating energy of his live performances.

Gallagher was a hugely influential guitarist, admired by, among others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Johnny Marr, and Brian May, of Queen. Clapton has credited Gallagher with “getting me back into the blues”, while May, interviewed for an excellent new BBC documentary, The Rory Gallagher Story, says: “One of the main reasons that I do what I do is because of Rory, seeing that magic that he had in his fingers”.

Indeed, Gallagher was one of a number of outstanding guitarists who auditioned to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones. The role eventually went to Ronnie Wood.

In 2015 Rolling Stone magazine ranked Gallagher at number 175 in a list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, saying he became legendary for his nonstop-touring ethic and fiery craft. Playing a weathered Strat, often wearing a flannel shirt, Gallagher electrified Chicago and Delta styles with scalding slide work and hard-boiled songwriting.

As the Gallagher website has it today, “this soft-spoken Irishman, characterised by his flowing locks and trademark working -man stage clothes, was far from ordinary. Gallagher was a self taught virtuoso who forged a musical revolution in his native land, shunned the traps of fame and stardom yet became a universally acclaimed international folk hero”.

Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, in 1948 and grew up in Cork.

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He picked up his first guitar at the age of nine and played in a number of bands until he left school. He played guitar with a showband, and later was part of a power trio, Taste, alongside drummer John Wilson and bass guitarist Richard ''Charlie'' McCracken (bass). They recorded four albums - Taste, On the Boards, Live at the Isle of Wight, and Live Taste.

The trio played its final concert, in Belfast, on New Year’s Eve of 1970.

Gallagher then formed band under his own name and embarked on a successful solo career, enjoying chart success with such albums as Rory Gallagher, Deuce, Live in Europe, Tattoo, Irish Tour ’74, Calling Card, Top Priority and many more.

His relentless touring schedule saw him play an estimated 2,000 gigs worldwide during his career, including some two dozen US tours. He starred at the Reading festival and the Montreux Jazz festival more times than any other act. His numerous appearances in Glasgow saw him play the Kelvin Hall in March 1972, and Green’s Playhouse in March 1973, with no fewer than 10 appearances at its successor, the Apollo, between November 1973 and May 1982.

Aficionados of blues guitar flocked to his many shows. As the Gallagher website says of his distinctive guitar style: “In due course, whether using electric firepower or acoustic mastery, the unassuming Gallagher would be transformed into a musical giant, yet he always maintained the most human feeling, eschewing extraneous [effects] and gizmos in favour of his own raw, primitive, string-bending genius.

“Acknowledged as ‘the people’s guitarist’ Rory would amass 20 million sales but the emotive connection he made with audiences across the globe was greater than statistics could show. Gallagher’s fire in the fingertips feel was the thrilling result of hard work and dexterity, tireless energy and dynamic drive”.

In the meantime, attention is being focused on that 1961 Fender Stratocaster.