‘My father held me in his arms four days after I was born, but I never met him’ – says Phil Lynott actor Peter Smith

Peter (46), set to perform in the Phil Lynott anniversary concert at Dublin’s 3Arena tonight, was born to a Dublin mother and a Nigerian father.

He grew up in Dublin’s Drimnagh, close to where Philo was raised in Crumlin. Like Philo, his father, Peter, wasn’t in his life.

“My father held me once when I was four days old and he went off to make his own life in the United States because he was from Nigeria,” said Peter.

“None of us heard anything from him until I made my first RTÉ appearance when I was 20.

“My father fought in the Biafran civil war that tore Nigeria apart in the late 60s and early 70s.

“His best friend that he fought alongside had two children in Waterford where he was married and they saw me on Derek Mooney and Ciara Carroll’s Saturday TV show and they put two and two together and they said, ‘That’s Uncle Peter’s son.’

“I had a sort of a relationship then. My father passed away in 2021 and while I never met him in the flesh we’d speak on the phone from time to time. He was married, living in Texas and I have half-siblings.”

Peter’s mother Eileen Smith met his father in a Dublin nightclub called Lord John’s. “He was doing a master’s degree in engineering in Dublin at the time,” he says.

“They had a brief but intense romance and fortunately for me I came along as a result.”

Peter believes that his 73-year-old mother never stopped loving his father until the day he died.

“It was only when he died that me ma moved on with her life because I think she was always in love with me dad,” he says.

“She waited until there was no hope with him, obviously after he passed away in 2021. My ma is a beautiful woman and she’s married now in England to a lovely man called Dennis.”

Like Philo, who was sent to live with his grandparents in Crumlin, Peter says he was brought up by his grandmother in Drimnagh.

“I was raised by my grandmother here in the house and my mam was more like my sister,” he recalls.

“In those days if you had a child young you ended up handing it to your mother. I was attached to the hip of my grandmother Molly.

“I was the only black in the village in those days,” he laughs. “The irony is, in those days all you wanted to be was just like your mates, so you kind of did everything to conform.

“It’s only now you realise the currency in being a little bit different.”

Peter says he’s often mistaken as a son of Phil Lynott. “I’ve had that a few times. But I always point out that my skin is a little bit darker than Philip’s was,” he says.

“Unfortunately I can’t claim that one, but I wish I could. I’ve had people walk up and touch my face and touch my hair and do you know it’s lovely.

“There’s an awful lot of people that still grieve Philip’s loss. If you can give them that moment of almost disbelief then why not, that’s your job.”

Although there have been false dawns about a Phil Lynott movie with Peter tipped for the lead role, he says it may yet happen.

“If ever there was a chance it’s going to be now with the stage production, Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma,” he says of the theatre show that has enjoyed rave reviews and whose fans include Johnny Depp.

“John Merrigan has written a brilliant script for Moonlight and I know it could easily be converted into a screenplay

“It’s a great story and it doesn’t touch any of the salacious stuff. I know Jim Sheridan wanted to do a warts-and-all and that posed a problem for the family, understandably.

“So I think it could definitely happen based on the Moonlight script. But I’ve been here before, so I won’t count my chickens.”

Peter Smith is one of the performers with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the Dedication to Phil Lynott concert to mark the 40th anniversary of his death in Dublin’s 3Arena tonight. Tickets are available in advance through ticketmaster.ie or on the door of the venue this evening.