His story is a microcosm of Galway’s own growth into Ireland’s arts and culture capital – but when Ollie Jennings first arrived here, his only plan was to find time to listen to music…not to found the Arts Festival and manage the Saw Doctors for the last 40 years!

In one way, the Saw Docs might be termed his very own house band, because some of the foundations were laid in the fact that two of the group’s founders, Leo Moran and Pearse Doherty, shared Ollie’s rented home.

“Both of them came to live in a house that I was renting at the time on Taylor’s Hill,” he recalls.

“It was owned by a woman, a doctor, who had inherited the house and had intended to come back to live there – but as years went by, she preferred to stay in Dublin. So we had long-rent on it and later I bought the house.

“It was a big rambling old house and Leo was there and Pearse, and eventually Joe Wall from The Stunning. It was where the first video of I Useta Lover was made – in the bedroom upstairs,” he says.

In the fourth episode of broadcaster Sean O’Rourke’s RTE podcast, Insights, Ollie recalls how it all began – and reveals the ‘visionary and generous’ decision that proved to be key to the band’s longevity.

“It’s one of the unique things about the Saw Doctors; Davy and Leo, who write virtually all the songs, turn all that money back into the Saw Doctors and they’ve done that from Day One – and that goes back then to pay everybody a weekly wage,” he tells Sean O’Rourke.

“The success of the Saw Doctors is in some ways down to the vision and generosity of Davy Carton and Leo Moran – for us all to work as one.”

The other catalyst, of course, was Mike Scott, frontman of the Waterboys, who took a shine to the band when they were in their infancy back in 1986.

“He was living in Spiddal with The Waterboys and he came in to see them in The Quays one night and asked them on the back of that to support them on a tour of Ireland they were doing for Fisherman’s Blues,” says Ollie.

And out of that, Scott then offered them a six-week support slot for his UK tour – so, to fund that, Ollie went to the bank manager and organised three grand of a loan.

Next up was a single release, and this time he convinced Henry Greally, owner of the iconic Oasis nightclub in Salthill, to give him five grand to record N17, which he did.

On the back of Mike Scott’s stamp of approval, the Saw Docs got a two-single deal with Solid Records. But N17 failed to make a big impression on the charts – at least first time around – so they went to the second option, I Useta Lover.

On the first week of its release, it went to number 29 in the Irish charts and kept creeping up; in September 1990 it hit number one – and stayed there for nine weeks to become the biggest selling Irish single of all time.

“Halfway during that run, they re-released N17 – and that Christmas, N17 was number two and I Useta Lover Her was number 3,” says Ollie.

The band signed a two-album deal with Solid, and the Irish label in turn licensed the albums to Warner Records for international release. But they couldn’t pigeonhole the band into any particular genre and they sort of fell between musical stools.

So the Saw Doctors brought back their song catalogue, set up Sham Town Records – and they appeared on Top of the Pops twice in 1996. That album, Same Old Town, sold 60,000 copies and got to number six in the UK album charts.

And all of the proceeds went to the band – recycling that money to keep the band going through the months that they weren’t touring!

“Because we owned it, we made about five quid a copy – so we had quite a lot of money in 1996.”

That self-determination also served them well when the world of digital music began to arrive – and it continues to do so today, when so many other artists rightly complain that they get nothing from the streaming services.

“We make money out of streaming because we’re the record company and we were very lucky in that we met an Irish/American lawyer in the very early days of streaming – and he got us a 90/10 deal with a start-up in California,” Ollie revealed to Sean O’Rourke.

“Subsequently they were bought by a couple of different people and the deal is now at about 70/30. We get a cheque every month – it’s not huge but it keeps us going.”

The Carlow native, whose father was from Ballinasloe, first came to the county in the Sixties when he was dispatched to boarding school in Garbally College, into a class with a few students who went on to shine in their respective fields as well; people like All-Ireland winning hurler Sean Silke, Ireland rugby captain Ciaran Fitzgerald and former Government Minister, the late Noel Treacy.

He went from there to UCD for two years in Commerce and eventually – in his own words – drifted over to Galway to sign up for Arts in UCG in 1972.

“I ended up as the Auditor of the Arts Society for three years, without actually going to college. We put on the Boomtown Rats in Smokey Joe’s – their fifth ever gig – and Bob Geldof asked him if he’d go on the road with them,” he says – and he turned them down.

His first big concert promotion was bringing The Chieftains to Leisureland in May 1974.

“I was a complete greenhorn – they cost 250 quid. I’d say if I had between zero and five pounds in my pocket, it was as much as I had,” he says.

But friends and family threw a few quid into the pot, and they got a full house…did 950 people at 50p a head and he made about fifty quid.

All of that laid the foundations for the Galway Arts Festival, which he led through eleven festivals – the first four before going to work with De Dannan and then seven, up to 1990, finishing as chairman for a year to oversee the transition after his departure.

The Saw Doctors took up so much of the next four decades, but that chapter too looked to have come to an end – until their recent renaissance has seen them play to bigger crowds than at any time in their history.

“We hadn’t worked since 2017, but we got an offer in 2022 from an enthusiast who was a festival organiser in England for quite a substantial amount of money – and we all looked at each other and said ‘why not?’,” says Ollie.

“That was a success and then we were offered five or six shows….” And the story just continues to grow and grow.

So has he any thoughts on retirement?

“I’m starting to think about it a little bit,” he admits.

“I’m going to be 73 in August, and people around me are dying. People I know like Fred Johnson, Gerry Mulholland, Gerry Dawe, Judy Greene, all people my age. It’s becoming a time for reflection.

“The only bother with it is that I kind of put my heart and soul into what I do – and if I stop doing the job, what am I going to do? I’m sure I’m going to miss it and would I be able to handle that?”

This is the latest podcast in the Insights series, a sit-down conversation between Sean O’Rourke and well-known individuals, offering listeners an insight into featured guests’ life, career and passions.  All episodes are available at https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/series/37870-37870-insights-with-sean-orourke/ or on the RTÉ Player.

Pictured: Ollie Jennings recalling the tenth Galway Arts Festival, in this wall of fame in Neachtains pub. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.