Butte Wolfe Tones
The Wolfe Tones are the hurling club of Butte, the Montana city with one of the strongest Irish heritages in America. Founded in 2018, the club now runs a St Patrick’s Day match that reached its eighth year in 2026 and an annual draft tournament that brings hurlers in from Canada.
Hurling in America’s Most Irish City
At the 2010 census nearly a quarter of Butte’s population claimed Irish descent, enough for the city to be called the most Irish in America. Hurling arrived properly in October 2018, when a tournament was held in the city. Ryan Mulcahy, a Butte Central graduate, watched it and decided Butte was going to have its own team. With help from the Missoula hurlers, the Wolfe Tones were up and running by the end of the year, and Mulcahy has been president and coach since.
They were not Montana’s first club. The University of Montana’s Grizzlies started in 2013, and Missoula’s Thomas Meagher Hurling Club followed in 2015, founded by Butte native Myles Maloney. The Wolfe Tones made it three, and the Butte and Missoula clubs have been meeting every St Patrick’s Day since.
St Patrick’s Day and the Draft Tournament
Every 17 March the Wolfe Tones play Thomas Meagher at Montana Tech. In 2023 the game was co-ed and played on Bob Green Field, with a few Missoula players loaned to Butte to make up the numbers, and Thomas Meagher won 38-21. The eighth annual match was played on 17 March 2026.
In September the club hosts its draft tournament, where players are drawn into new teams at random. The third edition in 2023 brought 44 hurlers to Butte, about ten of them from Canada. By 2025 it was billed as the North West Division USGAA Draft Hurling Tournament, with full 15-a-side games on a full Irish-size pitch at the Jeremy Bullock Memorial Soccer Complex and a poc fada to finish. The club trains there on Sunday and Thursday evenings.
Wolfe Tones, Two Words
The club writes its name as two words, Wolfe Tones Hurling Club, and appears as Butte Wolfe Tones on event listings. That sets it apart from Detroit’s one-word Wolfetones and the many Wolfe Tones clubs in Ireland, so the Butte crest is what marks out a Montana jersey.
This FanFile covers Butte Wolfe Tones as a club rather than one particular jersey. Check the crest, sponsor, manufacturer label and product code on your own shirt to identify its specific season and edition.
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Sources & Further Reading
- Distinctly Montana: Hurling takes root in Montana (2024)
- NBC Montana: Hurling becoming a Butte St Patrick’s Day tradition (2023)
- KXLF: Hurlers gather in Butte for the 2023 draft tournament
- Play Hurling: 2025 North West Division USGAA Draft Tournament
- Play Hurling: 2026 Butte St Patrick’s Day hurling match
Facts checked: 11 November 2026.