St. Patrick's Day is for everyone, but Columbus has plenty of Irish ties beyond green beer.

Why it matters: Irish immigrants helped settle Central Ohio, and their influence can still be felt centuries later.

Catch up quick: The Irish have been involved in Columbus since the very beginning.

• John Kerr, one of our founders and our second mayor, was born in Ireland.
• Irish descendant John Brickell built the area's first cabin and was famously held captive by the Lenape Tribe.
• Lucas Sullivant, who founded Franklinton and became an influential regional figure, had Irish lineage.

In the mid-19th century, Ireland's Great Famine brought an influx to Central Ohio, where Franklinton offered a friendly settlement.

• The Irish helped build the Ohio & Erie Canal, railroads and many of the area's brick buildings.
• Immigrants built the historic Saint Patrick Church, now 175 years old and our second-oldest Catholic church.
• Naghten Street — now partly Nationwide Boulevard — became known as "Irish Broadway."

Columbus still has deep Irish roots.

• Residents in every Central Ohio county reported Irish ancestry at a higher rate than the national average of 9.4%, per 2020-24 average census data.

By the numbers: Franklin is Ohio's most Irish county by sheer numbers, with about 150,000 people reporting Irish heritage, or 11.2% of the population.

• Percentages are highest in Madison (14.8%), Delaware (14.6%) and Pickaway (14.4%) counties.

Fun fact: Franklin County Clerk of Courts Maryellen O'Shaughnessy comes from a long line of influential Central Ohio figures of Irish descent.

• The family's Ohio roots trace back to Jeremiah Patrick O'Shaughnessy, who went from ditch-digger and Erie Canal worker to Columbus' superintendent of waterworks.

No city embraces Irish heritage like Dublin.

Flashback: Modern Dublin was settled in the early 1800s and named by site surveyor John Shields, born in Dublin, Ireland.

• Despite its name and current branding, few of the city's first inhabitants were Irish.

Context: It was a small community for more than 150 years.

• Fewer than 1,000 people lived there until about 1950, and the suburb didn't reach 4,000 residents until around 1981.
• A massive population increase began in the 1980s amid broader growth, the development of Muirfield Village Golf Club and following the construction of I-270.

The intrigue: The city is perhaps best known for the Dublin Irish Festival, which began in 1988 and now draws 100,000 visitors each summer.

Yes, but: Irish pride is on display all year long.

• Its city logo is a shamrock and the high schools have mascots Shamrocks, Irish and Celtic Warriors.
• Even its fire hydrants are green.

Today, Dublin is one of Central Ohio's fastest growing and most prosperous communities, and is a "Friendship City" with its namesake in Ireland.

🌬️ Weekend winds left hundreds of thousands without power in what AEP Ohio president Marc Reitter called a "historic storm." Most outages have been resolved. (Dispatch)

⚽️ Columbus will host nine Olympic soccer matches in 2028 — eight men's and women's group stage matches and a men's quarterfinal. (Crew)

🪙 A proposed Ohio bill would set a statewide standard for rounding coins to the nearest nickel amid the nationwide penny shortage. (Statehouse News Bureau)

🐔 Columbus Monthly profiled controversial local journalist D.J. Byrnes, aka The Rooster.

• His efforts recently went viral after an OSU faculty member attacked a cameraman. (Columbus Monthly)

🍺 BrewDog's U.S. operations — including its remaining Columbus-area breweries and bars — was acquired by New York-based Tilray Brands. (Columbus Business First 🔒)

🥒 Pickle Palooza is coming to Huntington Park this summer. Tickets sold through a "priority list" go on sale March 26. (WCMH-TV)

Anduril Industries has an increasingly influential role in U.S. national security as it builds one of Ohio's largest development projects, and its founder Palmer Luckey sat down for a new episode of "The Axios Show."

Why it matters: The autonomous weapons manufacturer's $1 billion, 5-million-square-foot production facility near Rickenbacker airport promises more than 4,000 jobs and $530 million in payroll in exchange for substantial tax credits.

Driving the news: In the conversation, Palmer Luckey discusses the U.S. holding an "extremely small" lead on China in the AI race and the two nations' competition in a variety of industries.

Other key points Luckey laid out during the almost hour-long interview:

• ☢️ He would "definitely" build nuclear weapons: "I would build fission weapons. I would build fusion weapons. Nuclear weapons have been one of the most stabilizing forces in history — ever."
• 🪖 The Defense Department and its programs are being run differently today than in prior administrations.
• 🪨 He's serious about fighting an underground war: "Anduril has working prototypes of subterranean systems that can deliver a variety of kinetic, electronic and other effects."
• 🏜️ The U.S. lacks the "political will" and popular consensus to put boots on the ground in Iran after decades of "adventures" in the Middle East.
• 👔 You don't "need to be a larger than life character" to run a defense business.
• 🥊 The Pentagon-Anthropic feud boils down to policies and personalities.

Go deeper: Anduril's Palmer Luckey talks AI, nukes and Iran on "The Axios Show"

The Blue Jackets remain in the playoff hunt, but fans can participate in their own, less nerve-racking hunt.

Catch up quick: For the team's 25th anniversary, giant pucks are popping up across Franklin County.

• Fans can virtually check in at different locations to win prizes for the rest of the season.
• Checking in at all 12 puts them in a drawing for free tickets to 2026's opening night.

The latest: This week's puck is on Front Street.

• Check in before Friday and you could win a limited edition silver puck, two tickets to Saturday's anniversary game or autographed jerseys.

State of play: With 16 games left to play, the Jackets are just outside the final wild card spot.

• They take on the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes tonight at home. Tickets.

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