On Saturday, 14th March, downtown Pittsburgh will be green. The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will draw tens of thousands to Grant Street, making it one of the biggest celebrations in the nation.
Pittsburgh is one of America’s largest Irish-American cities. The holiday, for its residents, represents a sense of genuine homecoming.
This corner of Pennsylvania has been home to many Irish for nearly three hundred years. The history of this city is shaped by hard work and politics, faith and famine, as well as tenacity.
My work as professor of Religious Studies and Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Pittsburgh focuses on American religion history and Catholicism.
Irish Foundation
In the 18th Century, Scotch Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics moved to Pittsburgh due to economic opportunities and a desire to flee British Anglican religious oppression. Pittsburgh’s population was 19% Irish in 1790 when the U.S. first census took place. Over 250,000 Irish had emigrated to the United States from Ulster during the preceding century.
Presbyterians as well as Catholics made their way across the Atlantic.
Pittsburgh’s population was 19% Irish in the 1790 U.S. Census. Bettman Collection by Getty Images
A larger Irish exodus occurred during the Great Famine (1845-1851), which saw an estimated one million Irish people die. Irish Catholics suffered disproportionately from the potato blight. They were forced to marginal land, where their main source of survival was potatoes.
Catholics were impoverished tenants farmers due to centuries of penal laws, whereas Protestants – wealthier and not as dependent on potatoes – could afford more resources. In 1900, there were more Irish in the United States then in Ireland. Pittsburgh has between 11% to 16% Irish-Americans.
The parish and its neighbourhood
Pittsburgh has many Irish neighborhoods. Irish were a large part of the Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including Hazelwood, Homewood, Hazelwood, Lawrenceville and The Hill District. One neighborhood on the South Side was named Limerick after the Irish county. The Point, today’s Downtown area, was populated by Irish immigrants from the 1840s to the 1880s.
It was called Little Ireland.
The Irish community also populated the North Side of the city, which was then known as Allegheny City. Men worked as unskilled workers, as canal diggers or as millworkers across the river. Women were domestics. In eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey they also dug canals, and many of them died from cholera. Many were buried in graves near the canal routes.
The parish life was the foundation of the community. St. Patrick’s, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District was the first Catholic Church built in 1808.
The Blarney Stone is a block of famous limestone that was built in the battlements at Blarney castle in County Cork in Ireland. It also houses a copy of the Holy Stairs in Rome, which are 28 steps of white marble. Many Christians believe Jesus Christ had climbed them in Jerusalem prior to his Crucifixion.
St. Peter’s in Allegheny City was founded in 1848 for the Irish while Germans Italians Poles and Eastern Europeans went to their parish.
Little Ireland was at The Point and South Side had a neighborhood named Limerick.
Getty Images: Print Collector/Hulton Archive
Like the rest of the United States the majority of Pittsburgh’s diocesan clergy and bishops were Irish. Irish roots were deeply rooted in the church, from Michael O’Connor born in County Cork, named first bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1843 to the subsequent bishops and clergy, including the Sisters of Mercy who established Mercy Hospital in1847. Sisters of St. Joseph were also a prominent group.
Among the notable clergy was Rev. Charles Owen Rice, a prominent labor activist.
Mercy Hospital treated many sick people during epidemics, and often free of charge. Irish fraternal groups, such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Catholic Sacred Heart Society also helped to improve the community during an era of high mortality rates from cholera and other epidemic diseases, like measles, diphtheria and smallpox.
The mill, the Mayor’s Office and More
Irish immigrants, their children and families were a vital part of Pittsburgh’s working class communities as it grew to be the steel capital of the United States in the 19th century.
During this period, the majority of Irish immigrant workers were unskilled. However, many went on to become skilled metalworkers in iron mills. Irish immigrants also worked in mines and rail yards in the region.
Pittsburgh’s steel and iron mills were dependent on Irish immigrants. Rykoff Collection/Corbis Historical by Getty Images
Irish workers were required to do the grueling work of excavation for the Pennsylvania Canal System, which linked Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in 1830. As the iron and steel industry expanded, many of these Irish workers transitioned to industrial jobs.
Pittsburgh’s union movement was also dominated by the Irish. Philip Murray was a coal miner who rose through the ranks to become the president of the United Steelworkers of America as well as the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Homestead Strike of 1892, which was a protest against industrial orders that built up the wealth of New York City on the backs of workers, attracted many Irish.
During the 20th Century, several Irish mayors have been elected, such as David Lawrence, Pete Flaherty and Tom Murphy. Bob O’Connor’s son Corey O’Connor currently serves as mayor.
Lawrence was mayor of Pittsburgh from 1946 to 1959. He became the first mayor in Pennsylvania history elected as governor.
Dan Rooney is a Pittsburgher who served as the ambassador of Ireland for Obama’s administration. He is best known locally as owner of Pittsburgh Steelers, and the son of Steelers founder Art Rooney.
Pittsburgh Irish Today
Pittsburgh’s Irish culture is still very vibrant. Each year, the city holds a large St. Patrick’s Day Parade that attracts between 200,000 and 350,000 people from all over the region.
The annual Irish Festival in September brings together approximately 25,000 people to celebrate Irish culture through food, music and dance.
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations include Irish dancers and marching bands as well as military personnel, local community groups, community organisations, and Punxsutawney Phil. Charly Triballeau/AFP through Getty Images
The community supports the Pittsburgh Irish Classical Theater year-round.
It also sponsors the Irish Rowing Club and the Gaelic Arts Society.
Every June, Bloomsday celebrations are held in various locations throughout the city. Many Irish pubs, as well as at least one Irish import store, keep generations who have not left Pennsylvania connected to their old country.
Pittsburgh is home to three major Irish dance companies that perform in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Pittsburgh’s Irish celebrations and culture are a testament to the Irish heritage that was once so important.
