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The state of Kansas has many connections to the Irish

By Beccy Tanner

The Wichita Eagle
St. Patrick's Mission Church and School, one-fourth mile north and three-fourths mile east of Chapman, was a simple limestone church built in 1861. Representative of the Irish Catholic community of Chapman. Original windows and doors were brought by ox cart from Leavenworth. The church was destroyed in the 2008 tornado and members of the St. Michael Catholic Church in Chapman built a memorial for the early chapel. A bronze plaque gives the history of the church.
St. Patrick's Mission Church and School, one-fourth mile north and three-fourths mile east of Chapman, was a simple limestone church built in 1861. Representative of the Irish Catholic community of Chapman. Original windows and doors were brought by ox cart from Leavenworth. The church was destroyed in the 2008 tornado and members of the St. Michael Catholic Church in Chapman built a memorial for the early chapel. A bronze plaque gives the history of the church. Mike Hutmacher File photo

This St. Patrick’s Day, wear a splash of green, avoid getting the pinch, and take a moment to reflect that the Irish influence is almost everywhere in Kansas.

The University of Kansas mascot, the Jayhawk? Irish.

During the 1850s, when pro-slavery forces clashed with abolitionists on the Kansas-Missouri state line, Kansans were given the nickname “Jayhawkers” after a mythical bird in Irish folklore that worried its prey to death.

And Kansas communities are filled with Irish names: Chapman and Solomon in Dickinson County, Vesper in Lincoln County and St. Benedict in Nemaha County.

Patrick Doyle, an Irish immigrant who settled in Marion County south of Florence, was the inspiration for Doyle Creek, Doyle Township and the Doyle post office.

Meade County has Irish Flats. And, in Marshall County, there is Irish Creek.

Those names aren’t happenstance. It’s because Kansas owes much of its heritage to the Irish.

Shortly after the Civil War, Irish labor helped build the Kansas Pacific Railroad, while others worked in coal mines in southeast Kansas.

Many of the Irish who came to Kansas during the mid- to late 19th century did so because of a migration fueled by Ireland’s potato famine and social and political turmoil.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @beccytanner.

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 6:32 AM with the headline "The state of Kansas has many connections to the Irish."

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