| Lynott’s anniversary is marked by ceremony
BY STAFF REPORTER
DOZENS of black roses have been placed in a quiet
corner of a Dublin cemetery to mark the 20th anniversary of the tragic
death of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.
His mother Philomena was among hundreds of people from Ireland, Britain,
America and around the world who gathered in St. Fintan’s Cemetery to
show that their admiration for the songwriter had not faded over the
past two decades.
The British-born Irish singer’s grave was instantly recognisable as
roses in memory of the band’s 1979 famed album Black Rose were placed on
the slab.
Others placed guitar plectrums and bouquets of flowers for the man
credited with paving the way for Irish rock music.
Hundreds of fans travelled to the capital from Belgium, Holland,
Germany, Scandinavia, Brit-ain, America, Australia, Canada, Japan and
beyond for the annual Vibe for Philo tribute concert held in Dublin and
various venues in January.
A message from a fan named Brian on the Roisín Dubh Trust website said:
“Still miss you, Phil.”
Fellow Thin Lizzy fan Rob
said: “You’re still the main man Phil. Gone but definitely not
forgotten.”
Lynott was born in Birmingham and brought up in Dublin. He started
playing in groups in the Crumlin area before forming Thin Lizzy in 1969.
The group’s catalogue of hit songs is headlined by The Boys Are Back in
Town, Whiskey in the Jar, Jailbreak and Dancing in the Moonlight.
After the band broke up, Lynott embarked on a solo career and died in
1986 at the age of 36 from heart failure as the result of a drugs
overdose.
The Roisín Dubh Trust is one of the groups working to ensure the iconic
figure is remembered on Dublin streets.
The trust first approached Dublin City Council in January 2000 to get a
statue erected to honour the rock star and the life-size bronze figure
was finally unveiled off Dublin’s Grafton Street last August.
At the unveiling his mother said: “I love him forever and I will miss
him forever. Life is awful without him but knowing all these people are
loving him the way they do, they are like a big woolly cloak around me.”
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