More than 250 people attended an educational and inspiring concert by legendary Irish folk singer and peace activist Tommy Sands at Hesston College Tuesday evening, February 24. Sands was joined on stage by his two children, also accomplished musicians, 26–year old daughter Moya, who sang and played a number of instruments, and his 25-year old son, Fionán, who sang and played a banjo or a mandolin.

Internationally-acclaimed baritone and peace ambassador Tony Brown, a college faculty member, joined them for one selection.

The program, cosponsored by Hesston College and Peace Connections of Newton, was titled “The Troubles,” a look at the struggles of Sands’ Northern Ireland homeland over the past number of years. The program focused on the last 30-40 years, according to Sands, “when I was impacted by The Troubles and our generation was impacted by The Troubles. I tried to present through songs, which I had written during this period, and words where the troubles came from and how we worked to find a solution to it,” Sands explained.

A 1998 power-sharing agreement led to a parliament that was seated around the turn of the century.

“The Troubles are largely over,” Sands said.” Some dissidents don’t agree with it, but they’re small and don’t have much support. Some people still want the British to leave entirely; they don’t want any British presence in Ireland.”

Sands and his two children were in Hesston and at Hesston College for two days during their six-week U.S. tour. “It’s an interesting place,” he said after the concert. “I’d like to be here for much longer. It’s difficult to learn much in just a short time, but the impression is that it is very warm and inspiring. The audience tonight was very much a thinking people—they were interested in what’s going on in other places… that is heartwarming.

Brown had never heard Sands and his children perform. “I thought it was a wonderful mix of music and story-telling,” he said. “They went together so well. It was educational and entertaining, all at the same time. I liked it a lot. It was fun.”

A free-will offering raised $1,000 for Circles Initiative, a national organization established to address the issues of poverty. Peace Connection is the lead agency of the first Circles Initiative in Kansas, which will address the systemic issues facing people in poverty in Harvey County.

Late Tuesday afternoon, a President’s Reception was held to welcome Tommy, Moya, and Fionán Sands to Hesston College. During the reception, Tony Brown explained that the first time he met Tommy Sands was during his first visit to Northern Ireland in the fall of 2003, when he was a guest on Sands’ BBC radio show in Belfast.

When Brown visited Northern Ireland for the third time in the fall of 2007, he and Sands sang in two prisons in Belfast and visited with leaders involved in the conflict in that country. Sands recounted how that in 1995, he had begun “Music of Healing” annual assemblies bringing Protestants and Catholics together, but none of the leaders ever came.

However, when Brown went to Northern Ireland in the fall of 2007, he and Sands met with the leaders and their families of two of the major paramilitary groups involved in the Northern Ireland conflict. They represented the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on the Catholic side and their former adversaries, the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) on the Protestant side. “That was an important event,” Sands said. “Thank you for allowing Tony to come and share.”

Sands explained why Brown’s presence and sharing in song and words as a peace ambassador was important. “It’s always good to have another voice, because living in Northern Ireland, a small place, everyone is almost regarded as [being on] one side or the other,” Sands said. “It was good for Tony coming from a black tradition, for one thing, and coming from another place. He wasn’t seen as being on either side. He was seen as being on the side of fair play, and so his voice would be accepted.”

“Music of Healing” is also a song Sands and well-known American folk singer Peter Seeger co-wrote in 1995. (Sands has also written songs sung by Joan Baez.) Tommy, Moya, and Finonan Sands performed the song during the afternoon reception and the evening concert.

The lyrics of the chorus are:

“Ah, the heart’s a wonder,
Stronger than the guns of thunder.
Even when we’re torn asunder,
Love will come again.”