A Sri Lankan community is to be renamed "Sham Town" and one of its boats will be known as the "N17" to mark the post-tsunami support given to the area by the Galway band the Saw Doctors.
The band raised thousands of euro for the community in the province of Galle after last year's tsunami disaster when they issued a special limited edition of a live album. All 1,000 copies of the live recording of a New Year's Eve concert sold out in a single day.
Ollie Jennings, Saw Doctors manager, said another 1,000 albums were then signed by the band and sold for €15 each. In total, more than €30,000 was given to help rebuild communities in Galle.
"The response was overwhelming a year ago and we were only too glad to help out," Mr Jennings said. However, the band didn't seek any publicity on the back of the effort, and were pleasantly surprised to learn of the renaming tribute. Sham Town is the band's record label and the N17 is the name of one of their best-known songs - as in the Galway-Tuam "highway".
The band hope to visit Sri Lanka during their 2006 tour. They are about to embark on a 12-concert tour of North America, and plan to return to Australia.
"We would like to visit Sham Town and see the N17 boat and hopefully help out a bit more when we are in Sri Lanka," Mr Jennings said.
