Take to the Green Fields (or Ice)
October is party time for central Ohio’s Irish American community (and our Ceili kicks off November)! Columbus’ Daughters of Erin chapter holds their 47th Anniversary party this month, while the city’s Comhaltas organization brings their yearly Ceili (with local trad musician members of the group providing the tunes) to the Shamrock Club on November 7. The Greater Columbus Irish Cultural Foundation will also use the Shamrock Club for their fundraising morning of Irish Road Bowling on Saturday, October 25.
Unfortunately, our wildest Irish party pre-Samhain, the sold-out Kneecap concert of October 17, has been canceled by the band – as has their entire U.S. tour for October. The proximity of band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh’s London criminal court date (in a case his lawyers argue was filed a day late for the British statute of limitations) necessitates the band stay in Belfast, but they promise to be back in America bigger and better in the future.
Irish on Columbus’ Fields
Modern Columbus remains without Gaelic sports clubs, beyond our yearly morning of road bowling. Before the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a men’s football GAA club that competed in Midwest competition. Since the team disbanded, however, the remaining members of the club travel either up or down I71 to play with clubs in Cincinnati or Cleveland.
Columbus does, however, have a great history of hosting Irish sportsmen. In 1995, an “All Star” team of Irish league soccer players first came to the Dublin Irish Festival for an exhibition, followed in 1996 by Southside Dublin’s Shamrock Rovers playing against a United States Independent Soccer League (USISL) All Star team at the festival.
Today, Shamrock Rovers is the first ever Irish club to qualify for European Club Continental Competition (the UEFA Conference League) after not having won the domestic League championship the year prior (qualification is much easier for league champions). Shamrock Rovers qualification to the Conference League, along with Northside Dublin club Shelbourne, also made history, as Ireland has never seen two clubs qualify for Continental Competition in the same year. That feat made the Republic of Ireland the lowest-ranked soccer country in Europe to ever have two clubs qualify for Continental Competition in the same year.
Back in Columbus, the inauguration of Major League Soccer in 1996, with the Columbus Crew as a founding member, has seen many more Irish soccer players on the city’s sports fields. The greatest was Robbie Keane, the Republic of Ireland’s all-time leading goal scorer, who played in Columbus Crew Stadium twice during his six-year MLS career, with a goal scored against the Crew in 2012.
Jon Gallagher, from Dundalk, County Louth, still plays in MLS for Austin, while Irish American Jack McGlynn from Philadelphia (and current member of the U.S. National Team) plays for the Houston Dynamo. Irish National Team member Andy Moran was also just loaned by Brighton of the English Premier League to the Los Angeles Football Club for the remainer of the season, but he and new teammate Son Heung-Min, an international superstar and South Korea National Team player, do not travel to Columbus for the rest of this season.
From the Grass to the Ice
No Irishman has ever won the Memorial Tournament, Central Ohio’s annual PGA Tour event, though Rory McIlroy routinely plays in the tournament. He controversially skipped the event this year after his Master’s victory though, with Jack Nicklaus noting he played the RBC Canadian Open instead so that he was involved in tournament play the week before his U.S. Open appearance. Rory’s 2025 decisions certainly cannot be questioned, as he capped off his Career Grand Slam by winning the Irish Open at the K Club in County Kildare in the most dramatic of circumstances this year.
October sees a new NHL season face off, with the Columbus Blue Jackets, led by Irish Canadian center Sean Monahan. Hockey itself is a great expression of Irish pride, as it evolved from the hurling played by Irish immigrants in the Great White North. The 2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation docuseries “Hockey: A People’s History” (available on Youtube), says it was the children of Irish immigrants to Canada who first adapted hurling to hockey on the frozen lakes of Canada’s winters.
1800s British soldiers stationed in Canada, many of whom were Irish recruits both pre- and post-Famine, were also known to play rudimentary hockey on frozen lakes outside their garrisons. While we lack a club for Ireland’s ancient sports, the fields, greens, and rinks of modern Columbus offer a great chance to see the sports stars of Ireland and its Diaspora today!
