North West Migrants Forum

Born in England, Phil Lynott was brought up by his Irish grandparents in Dublin. Little could they have foreseen how the boy with the big hair and big smile would grow to be one of Ireland's most revered rock icons. (Photo source: By Steve Knight - https://www.flickr.com/photos/kitmasterbloke/51413713386

BLACK HISTORY MONTH STORIES: Phil Lynott – Black, Irish, loud and proud

Philip Parris Lynott was born on August 20 1949 in West Bromwich.

Lynott was initially raised by his Irish teenage mother Philomena in a Catholic home for unmarried mothers in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Struggling to find lodgings and childcare as the mother of a mixed race child, Philomena and son Phil subsequently moved to Manchester. While her relationship with Lynott’s father, Brazilian-born Cecil Parris, had ended when Lynott was an infant, Parris initially helped pay towards his son’s support, though as he lived in London there was little contact between father and son. In due course, his payments and contact would stop.

When Lynott was three, he met his Irish grandparents for the first time. Though the couple had initially been shocked at having an illegitimate mixed race grandchild, they would go on to have a close and loving relationship with Lynott. Indeed, after Philomena felt increasingly unable to cope trying to work and raise a child on her own in Manchester, his grandparents agreed to care for him in Dublin, despite the social stigma attached in Ireland to illegitimate children, not least those who were black.

In order to try and ease the stigma for the family, Lynott’s grandparents pretended to neighbours that Lynott was the son of Philomena’s friend, though the secret was mostly seen through. Lynott was sent to them at the age four, he would not return to England again until he moved to London in 1971 when his band, Thin Lizzy, signed a record detail.

Lynott, the band’s de facto leader and composer (or co-composer) of almost all the band’s songs, would achieve international prominence as the first black Irishman to achieve success in a rock band. Though Philomena reported experiencing frequent prejudice and abuse in England directed at herself and her son when he was a baby, Lynott reportedly experienced very little direct racism growing up in Ireland.

Lynott was inordinately proud of his Irish identity as well as his black heritage, seeing no problem with inhabiting both spaces. In an interview with the Daily Express in 1970, he stated that ‘to be black and Irish like Guinness is natural…everyone else is a bit weird’.

Lynott with his Thin Lizzy band mates in 1974. (Photo source: By AVRO – FTA001019224 001 con.png)

Speaking in an interview with the Irish Independent in 2013, Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham said, “Phil was so proud of being Irish. No matter where he went in the world, if we were talking to a journalist and they got something wrong about Ireland, he’d give the guy a history lesson. It meant a lot to him.”

As well as worldwide success with Thin Lizzy, Lynott worked with many other artists.

He can be heard on Gary Moore’s tracks ‘Parisienne Walkways’ which went to number eight in 1979 and ‘Out In The Fields’ which reached number five on release in May 1985.

Phil Lynott finally succumbed to the excesses of his lifestyle and died on January 4 1986. But he left behind a legacy of work that continues to inspire and captivate audiences old and new and carved out his well-deserved place among the greats of 20th century musicians.

(The information for this article was sourced from various sites, most notably thinlizzy.org and mixedmuseum.org)