I was at a party recently to celebrate the marriage of Packie Bonner’s son.

I sat and had a drink with Rosemary Burns and it is funny that a decade on, how fresh Tommy’s death can still feel.

It is events like that where you appreciate that he is not there, that he has already been gone for ten years.

The last time I saw Tommy was at St Cadoc’s church in Newton Mearns. It was just a few weeks before he passed away and we were both there to see our respective grandchildren christened.

And the day he told me that he had cancer was coming out of mass at St Joseph’s church in Clarkston.

For those who knew Tommy, the centrality of the church and his faith and the fact that these huge events in his life came after celebrating mass wouldn’t be a surprise.

Family, football and faith were the pillars of Tommy’s life and depending on what day of the week it was and what time of day it was dictated what order they came in!

On a Saturday at 3pm it was Celtic. Noon on a weekday and he was in mass. And we all know that his family took precedence over everything.

I am sure they will be thrilled with the documentary on BBC Alba that will be screened next Friday on Tommy.

It is a wonderful tribute for a lad from the corner who did not too badly for himself.

I had a great relationship with Tommy through his playing and management career but for me, like a lot of people, what was more important that the football side of it was the fact that he was a good person, a great man.

I don’t think there is any doubt that he is assured of his place in the story of Celtic. And it is much deserved.

There is a little irony too that as we reflect on a documentary to celebrate his life that Celtic head to play St Mirren in Paisley this evening. Granted, it is a different ground now but that league triumph in 1986 remains etched in my mind as one of the great days at Celtic.

Tommy was central to that - and to all those who never thought it possible, I never doubted that we were going to do it that day. 

Another of the great parties I was at with Tommy was the night after Celtic won the Scottish Cup in 1995, the day Pierre van Hooijdonk ended the trophy drought.

Tommy never did need much of an excuse to get the singing going but there was so much wrapped up in that night - again up in big Packie Bonner’s house.

He was so unlucky in many ways in his time as Celtic manager.

He was up against a Rangers side that was arguably at their peak at that time and he just didn’t have the finances to be able to cope with what they were doing.

But the one thing you could not criticise was the way he had the team play football.

Guys like Tommy and myself were all brought up to expect Celtic to play a certain way.

He stuck to that philosophy and in another time he would have delivered a league title.

I will also always be grateful for Tommy for bringing me back into Celtic. He took the management role and he and Billy Stark approached me to get involved.

That ended up being as a chief scout and I relished being back in amongst it again.

When I had been sacked as manager in 1987, there was a bit of bitterness.

That is fair to say and I suspect it is the same for most people. But it fades over time.

You see things differently once there is a little bit of distance. I would have nothing but fondness for Tommy. When he lost his job as manager I think there was a time when things were a little bit awkward between us but it did not last.

For me the most important thing about Tommy wasn’t what he brought and done on a football filed but what he brought to the lives of the people round about him.

There isn’t a doubt that he enhanced and enriched people round about him and I consider myself fortunate to have been one of them.