Irish heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan arrived in Steubenville in 1884. He was the son of Irish immigrants and a hard-hitting, hard-drinking fighter, and vaudeville songs and marching tunes were written in his honor.

“Let me shake the hand that shook the hand of Sullivan” quickly became a cultural catchphrase, and wherever John L. traveled, an outstretched arm always reached in his direction.

It was the Steubenville of the Shamrock, a time when neighborhoods of the upper Ohio Valley overflowed with newly arrived immigrants. Little Ireland, as it was known by the 1920s, was in the northern section of the city near St. Peter Catholic Church, which was rebuilt in 1884.

In the years before 1880 the new immigrants from the old sod, where the spud failed, who had fled the potato famine of the 1840s were found on the streets close to the Ohio River, then a less desirable neighborhood considered to be of lower social economic class.

With honest hard work, the Irish would, in time, realize the American dream.

As the roaring ’20s unfolded, Erin and a smaller lot were living south of Market Street between South Third and South Seventh Street. This group was not as united as the group living in the northern section of town, but, again, the community anchor was Holy Name Catholic Church, which was built in 1885.

Many of the natives of Ireland found work on the expanding railroads as part of Irish gangs Some were able to better themselves, becoming baggage masters or railroad crossing guards.

The industrious Irish women became housemaids, and heads of households became grocery storekeepers, owning founding enterprises. Some might say it was the Shamrock or a leprechaun, but mostly it was resolve, coupled with long hours and sacrifice.

In Steubenville, a true night of blarney and flying fists was on tap the night of March 17, 1913, as Johnny Ray won a decision over Patsy Scanlon. Ray in the fullness of time, was the manager and trainer of Pittsburgh’s Irish Billy Conn, who almost stole the world heavyweight championship from Joe Louis in June 1941.

In a week-long celebration during the roaring ’20s in Steubenville, a part of the Emerald Island was on display on March 14, 1928.

That’s when Steubenville’s bantamweight Young Ketchel won a decision over Barberton’s Russ Elliott.

In the middle of the Great Depression on Shamrock Eve, March 16, 1934, at the Steubenville War Memorial Building, one of the Upper Ohio Valley’s most accomplished leather pushers, Weirton bantamweight Ross Fields, headlined a fight card, winning a 10-round decision over Leo Ritenour from Akron.

A couple of other Steubenville sluggers also were punching that night inside the ropes, including lightweight Jimmy Anderson and featherweight Clair Repole.

Across the river among those were the Irish who celebrated their heritage with corned beef and cabbage annually on St. Patrick’s Day.

The Fighting Irish, as they had been come to be known, celebrated the wearing of the green with prizefights right here in the valley.

A small town in Brooke County with a booming mining industry in the late 1800s which led Colliers to be a favorable boxing location. The town would host many boxing matches, but two major title fights: The 1873 lightweight championship and the 1880 world heavyweight championship. On March 4, 1873, the bare-knuckle boxing American lightweight championship match between Harry Hicken and Bryan Campbell took place at Colliers Station. After 24 rounds, both fighters fell and chaos descended on the crowd.

The fighters’ seconds, Ned O’Baldwin and Owney Georghagen, began to fight, and O’Baldwin was beaten with a pistol by a spectator. The fight was broken up, and the referee declared Hicken to be the winner.

Paddy Ryan, a bare-knuckled boxer, won the championship after defeating Joe Goss of England in an 87-round bout. Ryan would go on to lose the title to John L. Sullivan.

Me mother was of Irish persuasion: Maloney and McConnell, and my father’s mother was a Magee and her folks were the O’Briens.

The glory of the Blarney Stone.

(Traubert is a resident of Wellsburg)