Pittsburgh and Ireland are the Same

Dublin, Ireland

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this: Pittsburgh and Ireland are the same. Culturally, historically, religiously... let me explain.

The Pittsburgh/Irish Diaspora

Ireland lost half its population, going from over 8 million people before the Potato Famine in the 1840s to just over 4 million in the Republic today. Irish people worldwide number about 70 million, including 45 million people in the United States. After the Famine years, many Irish moved to Pittsburgh, to neighborhoods like Lawrenceville, where they were largely responsible for driving the engine of the industrial revolution. We all know the story: the Irish worked in our steel mills and coal mines, they built our roads, they built our skyscrapers. Pittsburgh wouldn't be Pittsburgh without the Irish.

Similarly, after the mills shut down, Pittsburgh lost half its population between 1950 and today, going from 670,000 to just over 310,000 people. The Pittsburgh Diaspora is hard to define, but the popularity of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the "Steeler Nation" might give us some clues. There are Steelers-themed bars across the United States (even the world). We can each attest to the age-old problem of young Pittsburghers moving southward and westward to greener pastures, but we can always find familiar faces in places like North Carolina and California.

But Ireland and Pittsburgh are reinventing themselves to overcome an outsider's negative perception that now seems so out of date. Dublin employs tens of thousands in the high-tech and internet sectors, with offices from Google to Microsoft now found along the old docklands. And Pittsburgh has risen to become one of the most important robotics and health care centers in the world, shaking the old dust off its feet.

The Land

It takes a lot of rain to keep Ireland this green, the locals like to say, and it's true. Most days, the gently rolling hills of Ireland are capped by overcast skies and a drizzling rain. Likewise, it rains more in parts of Western Pennsylvania than in Seattle. Pittsburgh has 59 sunny days a year. Dublin, also, has 59 sunny days a year.

A largely rural country dominated by agriculture and vast stretches of mountains, Western Pennsylvania is packed with rivers, green grass, and sheep. We've decided to name our towns Wexford, Donegal, Strabane, Carrick, and Carlow, among dozens of others.

The Language

Are you ready for this?

They say "yinz" in Ireland. Yup. It sometimes sounds like "youz" or "yiz": "Yiz up for pints later?" they say. I couldn't believe me ears at first, but I've heard it over and over again. Talk about a Pittsburgh institution.

They also say "slippy". "Watch out, the stones are slippy." I asked people about it... it's just the way they say it. Is there another place on Earth where they say this, besides Western Pennsylvania?

And the Irish drop the "to be" regularly. "The windscreen wipers need changed." Yes, it's true! I thought it was unique to Northern Appalachia. Nope. Wonder where we got it!

Revolution and the working class

Pittsburghers and the Irish are tough, gritty, hard-working people. They have experienced hardship: each have stories in their families of steel mill disasters or shipyard tragedies. The industrial town of Dublin, known mostly for its brewing industry, has fallen on harder times in recent years, as breweries and distilleries have moved out of the city or offshore. Guinness is no longer Irish-owned. Sound familiar?

The people take pride in their blue collars, and you can hear whispers murmured against the upper class in any good Dublin pub. Dubliners poke fun at their "posh" neighborhoods, the same way Pittsburghers make fun of Fox Chapel's yacht club.

Ireland's reluctance to sign the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, despite the government's begging them to do so, is exactly analogous to Pittsburgh's general mistrust of the G20 coming to Pittsburgh this past September. We Pittsburghers don't like things we don't understand, especially anything that seems fancy and European. "Ireland isn't Europe," they like to say in Dublin.

It's a conservative cautiousness ("A maglev to the airport? Git aht!") that defines Pittsburgh and Ireland for me, despite their blue-collar and, dare I say, socialist leanings. Keep in mind, Pittsburgh was instrumental in the Trade Union movement. More wealth was contained in Pittsburgh at the turn of the 20th century than in any American city but New York, but the wealth was in the hands of a few. It was strikes like the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Homestead Strike of 1892 that gave us working hours, a minimum wage, and protections against child labor, and the movements were always popularly supported by Pittsburghers, despite great loss of life. We spurred the first labor laws, we maintain the largest union headquarters.

And we cannot forget the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s, in which Western Pennsylvanians, in good anti-authoritarian fashion, protested the taxation of whiskey. President Washington crossed the mountains and suppressed the revolution. It was the first and only time an acting president personally commanded troops on the battlefield.

Protesting authority? Sounds a bit like the Irish situation for the last, oh, I don't know, 400 years. The Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Easter Rising of 1916, The Troubles. The Irish have been protesting the British since the Penal Laws.

Saints and scholars

They say Ireland is the land of saints and scholars. You can't begin to tell the story of Christianity in the Middle Ages without mentioning St. Columba, St. Columbanus, and of course, St. Patrick. And the literary legacy of Ireland is astounding: James Joyce (of course), Oscar Wilde (from Trinity College), George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, and Samuel Beckett, among hundreds of others. Many of them left Ireland, seeking inspiration elsewhere. But they all had a special place in their heart for Pittsb... err, I mean Ireland.

Ireland is fantastically literate. They tell stories like it's their job, and the language they use is poetic, heartfelt, and musical. Their children are well-educated, and for such a tiny island, it's worth noting that Trinity College is a top 50 world university.

Pittsburgh is one of the top 20 most educated cities in the US, despite having the lowest median household income on the list. We are also one of the most literate cities in America. And, in 2008, we were named the world’s 6th-most lively education center.

I don't need to begin to address Ireland's deep religious history. Ireland has one of the highest weekly church attendance rates in the Western World.

And just how religious is Pittsburgh? The area outside of Pittsburgh has the largest concentration of Presbyterians in the country, while the city itself contains one of the highest Jewish populations in the world and an impressive number of Eastern Orthodox communities, some unique to Pittsburgh. (And did you know that Jehovah's Witnesses started in Pittsburgh?)

But the immigrant influx to Pittsburgh was largely Roman Catholic. In fact, The Diocese of Pittsburgh counts 719,801 members, 150,000 more than the Archdiocese of Washington DC. Could we be more Irish?

Additionally, both Pittsburgh and Ireland seem to be hesitating from the evangelical non-denominational movement that's sweeping the world right now, favoring instead their traditional long-established churches. It's a unique position they both share, whether the people are Catholic or Protestant.

Food

And alongside all the churches in Pittsburgh and Dublin, there are hundreds of bars and pubs. The 84 bars within one mile on the South Side of Pittsburgh is by some accounts the most densely-packed pub scene in the world. Dublin's corresponding mix of churches and pubs is summed up in the words of James Joyce, who wrote, "A good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub."

And food? All pub food. All root vegetables. Lots of beer. Have you heard of an Irish breakfast? Ireland ranks #1 among the world's biggest calorie consumers, at an average of 3410 calories a day, per person. (Wow!) Pittsburgh is ranked #2 on the list of the most junk food-obsessed cities in the United States. We also invented Heinz Ketchup, which is very potato-friendly.

And, I have to say, the Pittsburgh tradition of putting french fries on everything from sandwiches to salads seems pretty Irish to me.

Finally

Ireland has often been called the world's happiest country. The people consistently rank at the top in terms of the contentedness of their people, despite centuries of poverty, oppression, famine, and the rest. They are a friendly and accommodating people, generous to friends and strangers alike, and proud of their heritage.

If you're from Pittsburgh, you know we were just ranked the nation's most livable city, again. Pittsburghers seem to preach unceasingly about how nice their city is, and they take pride in even the slightest mention of Pittsburgh. We are not the richest city, or the most famous. But we love this place, and we'd love nothing better than to show it to you.

* By the way: All the photos on the left were taken in North Strabane Township in Western Pennsylvania (25 miles south of Pittsburgh), and all the photos on the right were taken in County Wicklow, Ireland (25 miles south of Dublin).