Irish American Politics
As we feel the spirit(s) of Samhain settle upon us, Columbus offers up so many opportunities to enjoy Irish culture this month. First, the music: the month starts with the Sex Pistols at Newport Music Hall on October 4.
Johnny Rotten (John Lydon, a proud London Irishman) has moved into a career of musical reality TV, but the band’s new lead singer, Frank Carter, grew up in England with an Irish dance instructor mother.
Chasing Abbey, who formed in Tullamore, County Offaly, bring their fusion of traditional and modern, Irish and English language lyrics to the A&R Music Bar on October 13 (after playing Cleveland’s Grog Shop October 11). Last, House of Hamill, a hit at this Summer’s Central Ohio Folk Festival, are back in town from Pennsylvania at Natalie’s on October 23.
For Irish dance, a Taste of Ireland – a professional dance troupe from Off-Broadway and London’s West End, perform in the Palace Theater on October 17 – one of their five Ohio tour stops this month. We have Irish sport too, as Road Bowling returns to the lanes of Deer Creek State Park on Saturday morning, October 24.
There is real Irish Samhain preparation as well, thanks to Gemut Brewery in Olde Towne East. The local brewer, who honors German Purity Laws, provides turnips for carving traditional Irish Halloween decorations Tuesday evening, October 27.
The Irish American organizations of Columbus also have Irish politics on the mind. With our deluge of no-limits American political advertising in high gear ahead of November 3, here are some plans and ideas for Irish Americans to improve politics back in Ireland.
Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus
Since 1981, members of the United States House of Representatives have joined together across partisan lines in the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus. The group’s initial purpose was for American politicians to influence British government policy in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. At its most powerful, during the Northern Irish Peace Process in the 1990s, the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus had over 90 members.
By the 2010s, however, the Caucus was down to only 30 Representatives. The United Kingdom’s 2016 vote in favor of Brexit – legally removing England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland from the European Union – re-energized the political senses of Irish America. Today, the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus has 35 members made up of 13 Republicans and 22 Democrats with membership drawn from 18 different states.
Only Representative Bob Latta of Ohio’s northern and western Fifth Congressional District participates in the Caucus despite Ohio having 15 elected members to the United States House of Representatives. No Ohio state or national legislators are current members of the bipartisan Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement, formed in 2019 in the United States as a negotiating bulwark against British Tories threatening to rebuild a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic as a consequence of Brexit (56% of voters in Northern Ireland voted against Brexit, or to Remain in the European Union).
Excitingly, state politicians from Ohio are members of the American Irish State Legislators Caucus, founded in 2021 at the height of Irish American lobbying about the effects of Brexit on Northern Ireland. State House member Lauren McNally of Youngstown used her American Irish State Caucus connections to pass Ohio law establishing the Ohio Ireland Trade Commission in August 2025.
A great place to refresh Irish American political advocacy further is to ask our legislative representatives to join their appropriate Irish Caucus. In Columbus this past St. Patrick’s Day, Mayor Ginther and City Council both announced declarations calling on the Irish Republic to actively prepare for a possible Re-Unification vote in Northern Ireland. Our Congressional legislators at both the State and National level should also be educated on the issues and importance of America’s role as protector of the Good Friday Agreement.
Brexit and Irish Unity
For the first time ever, after local elections in the United Kingdom in May 2026, the devolved national parliaments in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales now all have pro-independence parties as their largest legislative constituent: the Scottish National Party in the Scottish Parliament, Sinn Féin in Stormont in Northern Ireland, and Plaid Cymru in the Welsh Senedd. With independence and re-unification desires growing across the Irish and British islands, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham took the usual Unionist stance that no re-unification vote will be considered at the end of last August while visiting Belfast.
Northern Ireland is the only nation within the United Kingdom with a guaranteed right to independence through the Irish Reunification provision of the Good Friday Agreement. Scotland had an Independence Referendum in 2014, well ahead of Brexit, where 55% of Scottish voters rejected leaving the United Kingdom, but that election created a path for all the devolved nations to consider independence.
Clann na nGael in Columbus, the umbrella organization for the many cultural and political Irish American organizations in the city, is encouraging anyone interested in Irish Unity or human rights and investigations into the atrocities of all parties during The Troubles in Northern Ireland to write a personal letter to Helen McEntee, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dáil Éireann, the Irish Parliament. At the inaugural Irish Unity Summit during the Dublin Irish Festival this Summer, such a letter, spearheaded by the Columbus AOH and LAOH chapters, had 58 signatures from festival-goers.
Points to raise as Americans to the Irish Government are the necessity for preparations for a Border Poll in Northern Ireland as outlined in the Good Friday Agreement, and to continue supporting the families of victims from the Troubles period. Both the governments of the Irish Republic and United Kingdom treat seriously the political will of the Irish diaspora. A personal letter and lobbying your elected representatives to participate in their Irish American caucus are great ways to signal your political wishes with our country’s allies.
In 2025, a record 18,910 Americans applied for Irish citizenship as members of the “foreign birth register” (individuals with an Irish parent or Grandparent are eligible for citizenship in the Republic of Ireland). A record 26,083 citizens from the United Kingdom also applied for Irish citizenship as descendants.
The Irish Diaspora around the world is active, growing, and re-focusing on the homeland. It is a great time to take action to help our country and the Republic of Ireland protect and act on the Good Friday Agreement, still considered the seminal peace agreement for internal violence within a country in World history.
