The very first thing visitors entering Tyrone from Interstate 99 see is the welcome sign.
This green mark, complete with a shamrock, lets visitors know that Tyrone was once settled by Irish immigrants many years ago.
To celebrate this heritage, the Tyrone Community Partnership is holding a St. Patrick’s Day Irish Stew celebration tomorrow beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Citizen’s Social Hall on West Tenth Street.
“Tyrone is such a great place to live and the people are wonderful,” said Alice Mulhollan, an organizer of the Irish Stew celebration. “Everyone’s been hibernating and this is going to be a good time to get people out of their homes and allow them to celebrate the community in which they live.”
According to Mulhollan, the social hall will be decked out in St. Paddy’s Day themes, including shamrock plants, gold coins and the vibrant colors of the Irish flag.
A full menu of Irish fare is scheduled to be served and includes Shamrock Stew, O’Leary’s Jello salad, Blarney bread, Celtic cookies and Paddy O’Punch. The Frozen Cow will provide Galway Gelato and Irish Eyes Coffee will be supplied by Joybeans.
The servers for the evening will be provided by the local Key Club.
Rec. Norman Huff and Revel Kemp, the Australian Irish tenor, will provide the entertainment.
Tickets for the event are $5 each and can be acquired at Alice’s Garden, the Chamber of Commerce office, Joybeans, the borough building and Open Door Visions. Children aged three and under can eat free of charge.
“We’re going to probably be lucky to break even with it,” said Mulhollan. “It’s not a money-making project. It’s to get the public involved with the great heritage of Tyrone.”
Any money that is raised, Mulhollan said will be used for seed money for an event next year.
But those who are not of Irish descent are also invited to the celebration.
“Nobody is exactly sure how it landed on the name Tyrone,” said Mulhollan. “Going back through the history, there have been several accounts of where it got its name. There is a county in Ireland named Tyrone and that’s probably the most believable.
Mulhollan said Tyrone was a melting pot in its early days.
“We had German, Italians, British, Irish,” she said. “Everybody had their different factions.”
Mulhollan hopes this initial celebration carries on in Tyrone and continues to expand year-after-year.
“Next year, I have really big ideas,” she said. “We really want to move into a town-like celebration. Eventually, I’d like to see this town turn into a little Irish village for a period of time each year to not only explore our heritage on a local level, but also on a personal level.
“There’s a million things we can do with it,” said Mulhollan. “This is just the beginning.”
