The Saw Doctors
The biggest-selling single in the history of the Irish charts is about a Tuam man's lost love, and the band that recorded it still plays the town's name in its songs. Leo Moran and Davy Carton formed the Saw Doctors in 1986 out of the wreckage of a local reggae band and a local punk band, played small gigs with the singer Mary O'Connor, and in the spring of 1988 took a six-week residency at the Quays Bar in Galway. The Waterboys saw them there.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
Alex Marshall, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Tuam High Cross on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
I Useta Lover
Support slots for the Hothouse Flowers, the Stunning and the Waterboys through 1987 and 1988 built a reputation for live shows that has never left them. I Useta Lover, the second single, came out in July 1990, spent nine weeks at number one and remains Ireland's all-time biggest seller; If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back entered the album chart at number one in 1991, and All the Way from Tuam followed in 1992. The band has had eighteen top-30 singles including three number ones and seven studio albums, the last The Further Adventures of the Saw Doctors in 2010, with an EP, Wha'D'Ya Think a That, in 2024. She Says is the theme of BBC Northern Ireland's Give My Head Peace, and N17 is their hymn to the road home.
Live in Galway, and the Lotto
Live in Galway, recorded at the Black Box Theatre in 2004, became a live album and DVD; New Year's Day and Live at the Melody Tent followed. In April 1993 the keyboard and accordion player Tony Lambert, who had played with Bonnie Tyler and Alex Harvey and was living in a converted bus, won the Lotto jackpot of 852,000 Irish pounds. Moran and the former Saw Doctor Pádraig Stevens recorded as the Folk Footballers. The model on this page pins the town's square and pubs; the N17 guide covers the road.
Questions people ask
What is the Saw Doctors' most famous song?
Where are the Saw Doctors from?
Which Saw Doctor won the Lotto?
Written from Wikipedia, "The Saw Doctors" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.