GREENVILLE — Many people in the Maimi Valley do not realize that Greenville, the County seat of Darke County, has a rich Irish heritage. That may explain why Mayor Jeff Whitaker and the good City Council have the town “lit up in Green”, up and down Broadway, for the month of March and specifically to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Ted Finnarn shared the history of Irish in the Greenville area. He said the Irish immigrants came to Darke County fleeing the devasting and historic “Irish Potato Famine” of the 1840’s. Over eight million Irish starved to death because of the famine or met their demise from disease and ill health in the Poorhouses that the English herded them into. Most of the Irish settled in a part of Greenville which became known as “Mina Town” or “Mic Town” in the area of North Main St., Spring St., lower Spring St., Wayne St. and bounded by West Street which hugs the Greenville-Union Cemetery. They rented homes next to the Cemetery because the Irish had the menial job of being “Grave Diggers”, since this was a time before the advent of any mechanically powered machines. A few Irish built their own homes, called “Row Houses”, some of which are still standing today.

The Irish had surnames of McVay, McCabe, McNutt, Hayes, Cox, Crider, Flurkey, Finneran, and Maher, just to name a few. They helped to build the St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville (circa 1901), a few blocks to the South of Mina Town, some of the workers and masons being second generation Irish Catholics, and they faithfully attended Mass there and still do.

The iconic and famous Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe was founded by the Maher family and originally located in an old “Row House”, next to the Cemetery where West Street meets Wayne Street and becomes State Route 571 West. The Maid-Rite was later moved to its present location on North Broadway, but still within the area of the long-ago Mina Town settlement. The Irish Catholics suffered severe discrimination due to their nationality and their religion and were persecuted by local town folks and especially by the Whigs/ No-Nothing political parties and later the Ku-Klux Klan, that was very prominent in Darke County and Ohio in the 1870’s and again in the 1920’s. Many Irish changed the spelling of their last names to avoid the taunting and ill will and to advance in politics. Finnarn advised that his great-great grandfather, Thomas Finneran, came over from Ireland fleeing the Potato Famine in the 1840’s and found his way to Darke County. His son, Theodore Finneran, Ted’s great-grandfather, changed the spelling of the family name to “Finnarn”, which was an “anglicization” of the name, and he then went on to be elected Darke County Treasurer as a Democrat in the 1920’s.

It is only fitting that the residents of Greenville celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and they do with gusto practically the whole month of March.

The festivities began at the Alchemy Cocktail Lounge, 203 West Main St., on Thursday evening at 6 p.m., with a catered “meet & greet” dinner of corned beef sandwiches, cabbage rolls and Irish cobbler potatoes. Mayor Jeff Whitaker was in attendance, along with Annie Sonner, director of the Darke County Shelter from Violence (which was the main non-profit organization benefiting from the weekend events.

The true Irish music took place in the famous “Upper Room” at the Alchemy, with songs by the singer-songwriter Irish Troubadour T. Ora Finneran. The event was interrupted and then cut short by the massive storms and tornado that cut a swath through Darke County, just north of Greenville, with attendees at the event watching the light and thunder storm show and seeing faint silhouettes of tornados when the lightning would flash and reveal them.

T Ora, up from the Oregon District in Dayton, debuted his new songs including “The Irish in Us All” and “Oh What a Joy is a Solar Eclipse” to the delight of all those in attendance.

After Thursday’s shortened program, the shenanigans kicked off again Friday evening with T Ora followed by John Whirl who presented an outstanding repertoire of U-2 Bono songs. He was then followed by Danny Schneible of the “Sons of Blarney” who had played at Montage for DCCA’s “Irish Wave” earlier that evening. The highlight of the Friday show was a special appearance by Shannon Clark who debuted a new song and then played Irish whistle on T Ora’s “The Irish in Us All”.

Saturday evening at the Alchemy started earlier at 7:30 p.m., with T Ora playing an opening set and then featured was “Just Chelsea” , a lass with a beautiful voice singing traditional and modern Irish tunes, such as the Titanic ballad “Our Love Will Go On” and of course “Danny Boy”, before a standing room only crowd in the famous “Upper Room”.

Funds were collected all over Greenville that weekend at the bars and pubs, for the March 14 Darke County tornado victims and also for the Darke County Shelter from Violence.

Also, on Saturday evening the Sure Shot Tap House featured a “Sham-rocking” good time with music by the “Flannels”, along with games and discounts on drinks and food.

On Sunday, March 17, the actual Day of St. Patrick, celebration continued at Danny’s Place on Broadway, with corned beef sandwiches and a lovely Irish stew of cabbage and potatoes prepared by co-owners Shannon and Larry Baker. There was green beer with the food and a special appearance by that singer-songwriter Irish troubadour, T Ora Finneran, who was winding down with his fifth gig in five days.