As we get ready to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2025 with the shillelagh and shamrock, it is good to note that the Irish have been a part of the Williamsport area from its very beginnings.

The founder of Williamsport, Michael Ross, bears an Irish surname, even though it is reported he may have been born in Scotland.

Judge William Hepburn, the first president judge of Lycoming County and known as the “father of Lycoming County,” as well as the man responsible for making Williamsport the county seat of the new Lycoming County, was born in County Donegal, Ireland.

More humble sons and daughters of Erin came here during the early years of Williamsport and Lycoming County as well. They came here for the rich farmland; they came to toil on the digging of the West Branch Canal and helped build and work the fledgling railroads that were arising here.

But perhaps more importantly, they served as a major labor source during the development of the lumber industry, which firmly put Williamsport on the map.

They helped to cut the trees down, send the timber down to the Susquehanna Boom, and worked in the many lumber mills that processed that rich supply of timber.

According to Christopher Norris, an official of the local division and a national official of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (A.O.H), many of those who worked in the lumber industry came from the southwest portion of Ireland, where there was still a good supply of trees, even after the English had stripped the rest of Ireland of trees and timber. These immigrants from the province of Munster found plenty of timber-related work for them here in Lycoming County and the Williamsport area.

Before about 1850, there was only a trickle of Irish immigrants to the area, but with the advent of the tragic “Potato Famine” in Ireland in 1845 and 1846, a flood of Irish immigrants came to America, and many of these came to this area and after they liked what they saw they wrote home to Ireland, encouraging friends and relatives to come here.

Like almost all major cities, the Irish took a leading role in public service, particularly as firemen and policemen. One of the earliest volunteer fire companies in Williamsport was the Hibernia Fire Company, located on Campbell Street. The men from that station wore green uniforms and had their station painted green on the outside.

Charles Mahoney, a son of Irish immigrants and a proud member of the A.O.H., died while fighting a fire at the Hippodrome Theatre on the Linck Block on West Fourth Street on February 16, 1927.

Another son of Irish immigrants, James Spellisy died on September 24, 1910, on the way to a fire alarm that turned out to be a false alarm while driving a horse-driven fire vehicle when the horse pulling the vehicle reared up and threw Spellisy from the vehicle breaking his neck and causing a fatal injury to him.

The early days of the Williamsport police department from the 1860s through the 1920s were dominated by officers with Irish surnames, including Carney, Berrigan, Dunn, Flynn, Garvey, Mahaffey, Marley, McCaffrey, and McCarthy, just to name a few.

John P. Maloney, murdered in the line of duty on March 13, 1907, is probably the most notable of these “Sons of Erin” on the Williamsport Police Department. He was the son of Irish immigrants and was a policeman for five years at the time of his murder.

As part of the continued love and interest in public service, Daniel P. Kirby, the son of Irish immigrants, became the city’s mayor from 1976 to 1980, and another mayor of Irish descent to serve was Michael Rafferty, who served from 2001 to 2004. “Raff” was also the editor of Webb Weekly for several years.

Within the city of Williamsport, the Irish families seemed to have been concentrated in Newberry, and the area bounded on the north by High Street, south to First and Second Streets toward the river until about the 1950s.

The Irish took the lead in forming their own Catholic parish when language and cultural differences arose between them and those of German heritage at St. Boniface Church. The Irish immigrants preferred not having their masses and church affairs conducted in German.

In 1871, they met at a property on West Edwin Street and, by the late 1880s, had acquired a property at West Fourth and Walnut streets and built what would become the Church of the Annunciation for about $60,000.

Later, they would build their own parochial school — St. Joseph’s.

When interscholastic sports became popular by the mid-20th century, one of the most highly anticipated events on the sports calendar were basketball games between St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s, the other Catholic parochial school in the city before 1968. St. Joe’s was the “Fighting Irishmen,” and the St. Mary’s team was known as the “Dutchmen.”

The Irish immigrants and their descendants have been a part of the rich ethnic fabric of this city and continue to contribute to its growth and well-being today.

So, when you celebrate “The Wearin’ of the Green,” remember the positive and lasting impact the Irish have had on Williamsport and the surrounding area.