A new documentary exploring the life of Thin Lizzy star Phil Lynott has a unique connection to Arklow.
Well-known local man and Thin Lizzy fan Colm Weadick is among the contributors to Songs for While I m Away . The film is directed by Emer Reynolds and tells the story of the life, work and music of the late Phil Lynott. It was due for release in Irish cinemas on St Stephen s Day, December 26.
Colm was delighted to be involved in the production and was invited to attend a special screening of the film on December 10 at the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin.
Statues are problematic. We throw them up for the great and the good, but they all too easily paper over the bad traits and dirty bibs from which none of us are immune. These are the very things that make the person who is being venerated in bronze, a human rather than a symbol, and if we are able to relate to them on that level, then it only makes their accomplishments all the more incredible.
I thought a lot about monuments watching this documentary portrait of Dublin rock icon Phil Lynott by Emer Reynolds. It made me think just how effectively they can communicate when executed with imagination and dynamism, but also how they can be an accomplishment in themselves.
8 min read With input from the late Dublin rock starâs close friends and family, Emer Reynoldsâs new film, Songs for While Iâm Away, puts forward a different narrative about the Thin Lizzy frontman
Most of us have been saying Philip Lynottâs name wrong. Even Emer Reynolds, director of an entertainingly celebratory new film about him, Songs for While Iâm Away, struggles with the actual pronunciation.
âI canât get my brain rewired,â she says. âMe and everyone else in Dublin have called him Phil
Linnet forever. Lynott [lie-not] is the correct pronunciation of his name. Philip always corrected everyone. He used to say âWhy not? Lie-notâ and his grandmother used to say [of their second name] âWeâre not a family of little birdsâ. But Dubliners just have their own way of doing things. And he preferred âPhilipâ. He didnât mind âPhiloâ, I believe, but he didnât like âPhilâ. Bu
Director
Emer Reynolds
Starring
Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, Adam Clayton, John Kelly, Huey Lewis, James Hetfield, Jim Fitzpatrick, Cathleen Howard-Lynott, Sarah Lynott, Caroline Taraskevics
Emer Reynolds presents a poetic and loving portrait of the Thin Lizzy hero in
Phil Lynott: Songs for While I m Away but glosses over the full story
Did anyone ever have a bad word to say about Phil Lynott? Well, how could anyone have a bad word to say about Phil Lynott? Seemingly the only black kid in Ireland in the 1960s, he was the mixed-race rock n’ roll flamingo who glided nimbly outta Crumlin and onto the world stage as frontman of the still fantastic sounding Thin Lizzy.
Even those of us who lived through Phil Lynottâs high period have trouble believing such a man ever existed. Internationally acknowledged Irish rock stars were, in the years before U2 and the Boomtown Rats, as rare as internationally acknowledged Irish Starfleet commanders.
In that depressingly monocultural era, his mixed-race background only added to the implausibility. And the records he made with Thin Lizzy still sound excellent. Johnny the Fox and Jailbreak merged American street life with Irish mythology in remarkable fashion.
âDown from the glen came the marching men with their shields and their swords,â he sang before moving on to the hustlers and dealers.