Stop using my son's music, Philo's mum tells Romney

Philomena Lynott (81) is furious at her late son's music being used to promote political beliefs her son would not have supported.

Mr Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, walked onstage to the Republican Party's National Convention last week to the strains of the Thin Lizzy hit The Boys Are Back In Town.

Ms Lynott, who is the curator of her son's legacy, told Hot Press magazine: "As far as I am concerned, Mitt Romney's opposition to gay marriage and to civil unions for gays makes him anti-gay -- not something that Philip would have supported.

"He had some wonderful gay friends, as indeed I do, and they deserve equal treatment in every respect, whether in Ireland or 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 those ideas.

Symbolic

"I would not want Philip's music to be used in any way that could hurt a single person, and this is the effect of what happened with Paul Ryan using and abusing my son's music in that way.

"A lot of fans and musicians are very angry about it and I can fully understand why.

"There is a black President of America, which to me -- as it would have been to Philip, as a proud, black Irishman -- is wonderfully symbolic.

"I have a lot of time for Barack Obama, so to hear The Boys Are Back in Town being appropriated by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in their campaign against him is deeply upsetting."

hnews@herald.ie