Tommy Sands

Now, let's go back to the house you grew up in near Mayo Bridge in County Down, Ryan Road.

What sort of a place was it to grow up in, Tommy? It was

a wonderful place, really.

Ryan or Rian, I think is the Irish word, meaning a track or a way.

In fact, Jesus might have said if he had went to the guilt talk for a while, You would have said, it's Misha and Rayan.

I am the way.

The town line of Ryan is three miles long and 300 yards wide.

So it's sort of a track.

But it was the path that we went up to go anywhere.

We lived in a small farmhouse and parents and seven children and neighbors had come in at night and from all religions.

Well, there's only two, actually.

Yeah.

But that was very important to me.

My first memory was watching toes tapping to the same rhythm regardless of the political persuasion or religious affiliation.

And I felt that music was something that could connect up the secret and sacred things inside us without our knowing or without our understanding.

Yeah, and that's so special.

You all helped each other out when it came to things like the harvest and even milking on the 12th.

Yes, very much so.

In fact, we lived near places.

We lived near Mayo Bridge and near Sheeptown.

And so it was three miles really to get anywhere, to go to school or to go to the chapel or anywhere like that.

So before we went to school in the mornings, we had a milk.

It was five boys and two girls and we milked the cows, but only two.

And what would five boys be doing milking two cows, says Hubert.

Actually...