When the Pittsburgh Steelers take the field this Sunday in Dublin’s Croke Park, it will be a testament to the relationship between Ireland and Pittsburgh. It runs deep, and like all Irish stories, it begins with the land.

The jagged shoulders of the Appalachians and the rugged edges of the Blue Stack and Sperrin mountains in the north of Ireland were once one. Part of the same ancient spine of the earth before the continents split. Even now, in Western Pennsylvania, you can see the traces of Ireland’s northern province of Ulster in the hills.

So maybe it wasn’t just chance that brought the first Irish to western Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

Fleeing the British

They came from Donegal and Tyrone. Scots Irish mostly. Presbyterians who would become fierce fighters. Fleeing British law

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