Celebrating Irish culture at Pitt with the Irish Design Center

St. Patrick’s Day weekend on Pitt’s campus is what some refer to as the spring semester’s quintessential “going out” holiday. As the weather warms and students leave their winter hibernation, festivities like the “Ginger Run” fill the streets of South Oakland. But for some, Irish culture in Pittsburgh carries from this hectic weekend into day-to-day life, in ways far beyond backyard darties with brightly colored borgs. 

Marie Young, Pitt’s Irish program coordinator, describes St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Ireland as very different from those in the United States. She describes St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland as akin to Thanksgiving in America, a family get-together. 

“We actually don’t go out on Saturday. We go to the prayers and then we go home,” Young said. 

Young teaches seven levels of the Irish language at Pitt. A Dublin native, she grew up predominantly speaking English but practiced an hour of Irish language every day as part of Ireland’s academic curriculum. At a summer camp taught in the Irish language, she fell in love with the language, later returning to the camp as a teacher. After visiting her brother in Pittsburgh in 2001, she never left and has taught Irish language and culture at Pitt since September 2005. 

“We don’t do the leprechaun wreck in the classroom, stuff like that,” Young said. 

A typical St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is a Catholic and bank holiday in which participants attend mass followed by a family-oriented parade. 

Young describes the Irish community in Pittsburgh as small, but mighty. 

“I feel like if I had gone to Boston or New York, I would have been one of many, whereas I felt a stronger identity to Irish here, and a stronger push to get it into the community and hold it here. We’re not a huge community compared to Boston or New York … we’re trying to make our little community here as strong as possible,” Young said.

She also said that social media has helped the language to flourish in the digital era.

“Social media has hugely helped … My students are just fabulous. I try to use the word ‘the caretakers’ of the language,” Young said. “Ninety percent of my Instagram is actually through Irish now, and it’s not even teacher Irish, it’s day-to-day living Irish, which is fabulous.” 

“I’m trying to impress upon the students that this generation has a voice in Ireland, and it is important … Just the awareness and the pride is the biggest thing that the students have picked up,” Young said. 

Young often takes her students to tour the Irish Design Center, located on Oakland’s North Craig Street. Local husband-and-wife team Tom Petrone and Maura Krushinski have operated the store since purchasing it about seven years ago. 

“I grew up in a family that was so Irish, we didn’t even realize it was Irish,” Krushinski said. 

In the early ’90s, Krushinski co-founded the Pittsburgh Irish Festival with her sister. 

“We’ve really decided to commit ourselves to perpetuating the culture,” Krushinski said.

Stationed appropriately between Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, the Irish Design Center welcomes all Pittsburghers who are interested in Irish culture, as well as students from the nearby campuses. 

“People come here to get things to support their weddings, or baptisms, or the birth of babies, or retirements, and we’re very connected with the universities,” Petrone said. “So many students come, and we want to make it a safe and a fun place for them. They’ll come in the middle of the winter, for a cup of hot tea, which we always have brewing … we want a cultural experience when they come here, and sometimes that’s a tea and a biscuit.”

Petrone and Krushinski travel to Ireland frequently to stay up-to-date on their inventory. 

“Sometimes, we go once a year. Part of that is just to keep fresh with the culture, to keep our connections connected, and also to make sure that we’re carrying here in the shop those things that are trending in Ireland,” Krushinski said. “There’s a symbol, there’s a story, there’s a narrative behind everything we have here in the shop.” 

Although the shamrock is a very popular Irish symbol, there are many visuals that express cultural importance. For example, the Irish Design Center features the harp, Ireland’s national symbol, in a plethora of its items. The Irish Claddagh ring stands for “friendship, loyalty and love.” Krushinski explained the legend, which involves a prince repeatedly asking for a neighboring princess’s hand in marriage. 

“A prince decided to offer his hands in marriage to the princess of a neighboring kingdom. She sent the ring back. He then added his hands and his heart, and she sent it back. When she added his kingdom, his crown, then she said yes. So friendship, love and loyalty. And you see this everywhere,” Krushinski said. 

The Irish Trinity Knot represents Celtic spirituality’s affinity for the number three. The number appears in Irish folklore often, representing concepts like Christinaity’s Holy Trinity, or the Triple Goddesses — maiden, mother, and crone. The three-leafed shamrock is also one of Ireland’s signature symbols.

“It’s a notion of infinity, this knotwork is very specific … if you look through our store, any time you see Celtic anything, it comes with that sacred number of three, or that infinity design,” Krushinski said. “Legend has it that St. Patrick, when he was trying to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagans of Ireland, he talked about the father, son and holy spirit using the shamrock.” 

Other important symbols include the Tara brooch, the Tree of Life and the Celtic cross. 

“Whenever anybody tries to take the culture away, it becomes even more important to preserve it. And so that’s something that we all do today, is continue to preserve and support and protect the culture,” Krushinski said. 

The Irish Design Center is open from 10 a.m to 5 p.m Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m to 3 p.m on Sundays.