RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Mercer County >> Irishtown >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Irishtown, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Irishtown and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Irishtown:
    • 41.213392, -80.124783
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Irishtown
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Mercer County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mercer County
    • Since Irishtown is near Venango County and also Lawrence County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Venango County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lawrence County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Irishtown

Communities Also Named Irishtown ...

We found ten communities that are also named Irishtown.

There are five communities within Pennsylvania that are also named Irishtown.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of five communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these five communities, seven are located in the United States and five are in Canada.

  • Communities Located In Pennsylvania ...
    • Adams County
      • This Irishtown is located in Adams County and lies 187 miles [300.9 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Adams County community of Irishtown.
    • Clearfield County
      • This Irishtown is located in Clearfield County and lies 77 miles [123.9 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clearfield County community of Irishtown.
    • Fayette County
      • This Irishtown is located in Fayette County and lies 91 miles [146.5 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fayette County community of Irishtown.
    • Lancaster County
      • This Irishtown is located in Lancaster County and lies 223 miles [358.9 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lancaster County community of Irishtown.
    • McKean County
      • This Irishtown is located in McKean County and lies 85 miles [136.8 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the McKean County community of Irishtown.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Amador County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of Irishtown [Amador County].
    • New Brunswick
      • This Irishtown lies 837 miles [1,347 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
    • New York
      • Essex County
      • This Irishtown is located in Essex County and lies 361 miles [581 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Essex County community of Irishtown.
    • Newfoundland and Labrador
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Newfoundland and Labrador community of Irishtown.
    • Prince Edward Island
      • This Irishtown lies 898 miles [1,445.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Irishtown that is located in Mercer County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Irishtown ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Amsterdam
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Amsterdam is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amsterdam
  • Bowie
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Bowie is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowie
  • Centertown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Centertown is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centertown
  • Enterprise
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Enterprise is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Enterprise
  • Filer Corners
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Filer Corners is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Filer Corners
  • Hope Mills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Hope Mills is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hope Mills
  • Leesburg
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Leesburg is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leesburg
  • London
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • London is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for London
  • Perrys Corners
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Perrys Corners is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perrys Corners
  • Swamproot
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Swamproot is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swamproot

How Far From Irishtown to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Irishtown to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Irishtown and extending to:

  • Mercer, which is the Seat of Mercer County, lies just to the West.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 181 miles [291.3 km]<1> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from Irishtown to Harrisburg, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 11 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 228 miles [366.9 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,925 miles [9,535.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,646 miles [10,695.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,522 miles [7,277.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Irishtown) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Irishtown, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Irishtown could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<4>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<5>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Irishtown to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Irishtown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.2134, Longitude: -80.1248       In this case, the coordinates for Irishtown have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.625 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.765 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.198 degrees.