This week, Miriam O'Callaghan catches up with Cork born singer-songwriter John Spillane and his brother Maurice Spillane who runs the Cork operation of an IT multinational called Logitech.
Both men recall the death of their father in 1962 and the impact this had on their family. Their mother reared her five sons by working as a psychiatric nurse and by taking in lodgers.
The men recall their childhood holidays on their mother's family farm in Bantry and their Uncle Tim and Auntie Mary. Childless themselves, their aunt and uncle provided the little boys with great support. When Uncle Tim died, John wrote a song for him called Gortantagart which has since been recorded by Christy Moore and describes each of the fields on the farm in Bantry.
There was a lot of singing on the farm in Bantry, but the first guitar to come into their Cork home was a Green Shield stamps guitar bought by Maurice. However, it was John who loved the guitar and both men recall the hours John spent trying to master Blackbird, the Beatles song.
Maurice has a conventional career, starting off as an accountant. Unlike his four brothers, John took a less conventional route in his professional life and he also left the church of his mother, the Catholic Church. Both these issues caused his mother to worry, but John and his mother made their peace before her death two years ago.
It took John many years before he had completed his apprenticeship as a musician and he told Miriam that the song Hey, Dreamer is important because it inspires people to hold on to their dreams in life.
John's newest album will be released later this year and he sings Miriam the title track A Rock To Cling To