Sitting in Primanti Bros, a greasy-spoon diner which has called the Pittsburgh Strip District home since 1933, there is a broad church of customers. There are families gathered around tables, solo men watching baseball games on the TV and even a trio of furries – a subculture where individuals dress up as anthropomorphic animal characters, sitting at the diner counter.They have all come for one thing: a sandwich. The Primanti Bros’ sandwiches are laden with meat (beef burger patties or thin slices of pastrami are popular choices), melted provolone, a vinegar-based coleslaw, tomato slices, and skinny skin-on fries between two thick slices of white bread. Each sandwich is served with a kosher pickle on the side and costs around $10.Primanti Bros sandwich The product of the Great Depression era, the sandwich was created by Joe Primanti (who was later joined by his brothers Dick and Stanley), to serve the city’s blue-collar workers late at night and early in the morning. Putting the sides of coleslaw and fries in between the slices of bread meant truckers could eat the sandwich without having to sit down at a diner counter. This is the image most people have of the Steel City; an old industrial town with a dizzying 446 bridges and strong Irish blue-collar heritage. But as the families, lone sports fan and furries indicate – there are 90 different neighbourhoods in Pittsburgh.What people might not expect is North America’s largest museum dedicated to a single artist, world-class architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater is a two-hour drive from the city), major sports franchises in stunning stadiums, and the lush greenery surrounding the city.[ ‘It’s like Pittsburgh invaded Dublin’: NFL fans happy to tick off ‘bucket list’ cityOpens in new window ]People might recognise the Allegheny General Hospital from HBO hospital drama The Pitt, or the Fort Pitt Tunnel from the Perks of Being a Wallflower’s “tunnel scene”, but generally, Pittsburgh does not live large in the Irish image of the United States. A good place to get your bearings is the Heinz museum, where tickets are priced at $20 for adults, $18 for retirees and free for kids under 18. The museum is not ketchup-themed, although the sauce does make an appearance, but instead tells the history of Western Pennsylvania in the state’s largest history museum. Irish tourists will instantly recognise items from the exhibit, namely the GAA jersey and accompanying hurley.Pittsburgh Hurling exhibit at the Heinz museum It is not the only place in the city where the effects of Irish people can be seen; inside the University of Pittsburgh’s crown jewel of campus buildings, the 42-storey Cathedral of Learning, is the “Irish Room”, which is free of charge to visit. This feature is one of the 31 nationality rooms designed by the ethnic communities of Pittsburgh, and was commissioned in 1936 in the style of an Irish Romanesque oratory. Twenty-nine of these 31 rooms are used as classrooms to this day. The Irish room at the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning Completed in 1957, it boasts a replica of the Book of Kells, a trio of stained glass windows from the Harry Clarke Studio depicting three monastic scholars (Finnian of Clonard, Colmcille of Derry and Carthach of Lismore), and an inscription which reads “Do chum glóire Dé agus onóra na h-Éireann”. The room’s organising committee was helmed by prominent Irish-American Yinzer Art Rooney snr, founding owner of the multibillion-dollar American football team the Pittsburgh Steelers, who played the Minnesota Vikings in Croke Park in September 2025. Acrisure Stadium, which hosts NFL games from September to February, is well worth a visit, either for a game or a museum tour. Commemorative football marking the Pittsburgh Steelers vs Minnesota Viking NFL game held in Dublin last September. Tickets for Steelers’ home games during the NFL start at $120 and go up to many multiples of that, depending on seats or on the game’s importance. One of the many quirks of the Steeler Nation is the Terrible Towel tradition, a rally towel that fans wave during games. The towel is bright yellow and has printed on it in big block letters “The Terrible Towel”. American football seems to be the basis for Aer Lingus’s new direct Dublin-Pittsburgh flight, which will operate four times a week except in January and February, and the airline has said it will “build on” a partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers.As well as serving NFL fans, the flight could also serve college football fans too. The University of Pittsburgh’s Panthers will open the 2027 season against the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Badgers in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic on August 28th at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Whether the sport will get hordes of Irish people returning the favour and crossing the pond remains to be seen, but the Rooney family interest in Ireland is assured even in choice of artefacts in their museum.The Steelers Hall of Honor Museum costs $18 per person and takes visitors through the history of the team and the illustrious Rooney family (people might recognise actors Rooney Mara, Kate Mara and former US ambassador to Ireland Art Rooney), who are still majority shareholders in the franchise. Niamh Browne at the Pittsburgh Steelers stadium brandishing a 'terrible towel'. In the corner of the first room you enter in the museum is a letter addressed to former US ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney from senator George Mitchell, written days after the Belfast Agreement was signed. A letter from US special envoy for Northern Ireland George Mitchell, one of the architects the Belfast Agreement, 10 days after it was signed. The letter was addressed to Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and US ambassador to Ireland from July 2009 until his resignation in December 2012. Another sport Irish fans won’t get at home is baseball, which is the sporting equivalent of elevator music – ambient, and something you can have on in the background while catching up with your friends. For some, this is what makes the sport off-putting, but for others like myself, it makes for perfect chatty leisure activity. [ Immaculate reception: How an Irish priest helped turn the Pittsburgh Steelers into winnersOpens in new window ]Tickets to see the Pittsburgh Pirates start at a reasonable $30, although pints cost $9 a pop, but there are few stadiums anywhere in the world that are as scenic as PNC park.PNC Park Pittsburgh The PNC stadium is walkable from the Pittsburgh downtown area. When we cross the yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge, there’s a Sunday yoga session taking place on the road. That said, most Pittsburgh neighbourhoods are best accessed by car, and you would do well to rent one in the city. If you wanted to reject the gas guzzler, there is a 240km cycle route to Washington called the Great Allegheny Passage. This car-free trek follows old railroads. Perhaps the most famous son of Pittsburgh is no sporting star, but an arty one. The Andy Warhol museum is the largest museum dedicated to a single artist in North America. Here, I spend several minutes contemplating the beauty of a large bronze canvas with attractive iodised copper splodges before realising it is urine which has produced this effect. The museum has an enormous rotating collection, which includes Warhol’s early artistic practice, his mother’s illustrations of cats, his film experimentation with the Velvet Underground, as well as the Marilyn series and the Campbell soup paintings. Reflective mood: Niamh Browne relaxes at the Andy Warhol museum. Priced at $25 at full cost or $13 at concession, it’s well worth it. Perhaps in true Warhol fashion – because good business is the best art – the museum gift shop is a highlight. It goes well beyond the faux trendy T-shirts and tote bags: you can contemplate buying a Basquiat-themed Ludo board game, a Salvador Dalí melting clock ornament, or pop art stylised hair clips. Another spot well worth a visit is the Carnegie Museum, half of which is an art gallery and half devoted to natural history and dinosaurs. Also priced at $25, this place presents a perfect solution to groups or couples who are interested in different things – you could happily split and have completely different experiences. Works by Jackson Pollock, Keith Haring and Mark Rothko occupy the more modern wing of the Carnegie, while T-rexes, Triceratops and Apatosauruses take up the other. In terms of dining, one restaurant stood head-and-shoulders above everywhere else – Apteka, an Eastern European vegan restaurant with an indoor/outdoor restaurant layout. With that kind of description, many would not think to book it unless told to. But they would be wrong. Think celeriac schnitzel with picant horseradish, comforting potato-stuffed pierogi dumplings, and Amish-grown (we are in Pennsylvania after all) asparagus with dill, served with baskets of home-made rye bread to mop everything up. The menu also came with an extensive drinks list of crisp Rieslings, home-made non-alcoholic fruit cordials, and in-house ferments for a sweet digestif. Pittsburgh Apteka Bookended by meaty sandwiches and vegetarian delights – a trip to Pittsburgh takes you through a former industrial capital to a now-reimagined city with hefty sporting and cultural chops. Niamh Browne was a guest of Aer Lingus and Visit Pittsburgh