“Tommy Sands has achieved that difficult but wonderful balance between knowing and loving the traditions of his home and being concerned with the future of the whole world.” - Pete Seeger

“You feel you can trust the singer as well as the song...” - Seamus Heaney

Tommy Sands, County Down's singer, songwriter and social activist has achieved something akin to legendary status in his own lifetime. From the pioneering days with the highly influential Sands Family, sharing Irish Music from New York's Carnegie Hall to Moscow's Olympic Stadium, he has developed into one of the most powerful songwriters and enchanting solo performers in Ireland today. He enjoys celebrity status in his homeland and elsewhere, tempered by artistic integrity and the sorrow of personal tragedy in his war torn homeland.

Walking the road between Protestant and Catholic, he dreams of improving that reality. As part of the acclaimed Sands family, one of the most important traditional groups in the early years of Ireland’s folk revival, Tommy has worked to add beauty to the world and to point out where it still needs improvement.

His songwriting, which draws the admiration of Nobel Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney and father of folk music Pete Seeger, prompts Sing Out! Magazine to regard him as "the most powerful songwriter in Ireland, if not the rest of the world". His songs, like There Were Roses, and Daughters and Sons, have been recorded by Joan Baez, Kathy Matthea, Dolores Keane, The Dubliners and many others. Tommy’s songs have been translated into other languages and are currently included in the English language syllabus in German secondary schools.
   

“One moment my tears were of sorrow, the next moment they were tears of joy, his songs are unforgettable stories.” - Radio Leipzig

“You feel you can trust the singer as well as the song.” - Seamus Heaney

“Tommy Sands is the only man, without a private army, who can intimidate me.”
- Loyalist Politician David Ervine

Musical talent truly does run through bloodlines as the Sands family proves generation after generation. Sharing the stage with his daughter Moya on fiddle and vocals and son Fionán on banjo and mandolin, Tommy Sands’ traditional folk artistry takes on the charming character of a true Irish ceili, where musicians and friends are offered an open door and kitchen table music sessions can last well into the wee hours.