Joe Bonamassa, who threw his weight behind the movement to keep the guitar in Ireland, publicly expressed his approval of the decision

Musician’s 1961 Fender secured for National Museum of Ireland with support from Live Nation Gaiety Ltd, says Minister for Arts

Rory Gallagher's iconic 1961 Fender Stratocaster guitar has been purchased by Live Nation Gaiety Ltd with a view to donation to the National Museum of Ireland.

Gallagher's Fender Stratocaster was sold during an auction of his guitar collection at Bonham's auction house in London today

Made in Fullerton, California, in 1961, and bought by teenage Rory Gallagher from Crowley’s music store in Cork two years later, the famous Fender Stratocaster was sold for a hammer price of £700,000 (€841,

The instrument was one of a number of the Irish musician’s possessions auctioned by the Gallagher estate on Thursday

Rory Gallagher’s iconic Stratocaster guitar is coming home to Ireland after it sold at auction for more than €1 million.

Rory Gallagher’s legendary Fender Stratocaster guitar sold today for just over €1 million but the purchaser is to donate the piece of Irish rock history to the National Museum of Ireland in a deal brokered by the Department for Culture.

The historic Strat – the sale of which attracted the attention of senior members of the Irish government, who hoped to keep the instrument in Gallagher's native country – went under the hammer along w