THE MOTHER of the late Thin Lizzy singer Phil Lynott has criticised US presidential candidate Mitt Romney for using her son’s music in his campaign.
Mr Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan arrived onstage last week at the party’s national convention in Florida to the strains of The Boys Are Back In Town – a hit penned by Lynott.
Philomena Lynott, a best-selling author and curator of her son’s legacy, rejected the use of her son’s music by the Republican Party. She said: “I am really upset at Philip’s music being used in a political way that he himself would not have approved of. As far as I’m concerned, Mitt Romney’s opposition to gay marriage and to civil unions for gays makes him anti-gay, which is not something that Philip would have supported.
“He had some wonderful gay friends, as indeed I do. They all deserve equal treatment in every respect, whether it be in Ireland or in the United States. Neither would Philip have supported his policy of taxing the poor and offering tax cuts to the rich, which Paul Ryan is advocating. There is certainly no way that I would want the Lynott name to be associated with any of these ideas.”
She told Hot Press: “Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about this except to express my views. A lot of fans and musicians are very angry about it, and I can understand why.”