Meet the couple who put the Irish on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue

Maeve O’Mara met Liam O’Neill when they both crashed years ago at a friend’s place in Dublin. Decades later, the natives of Cork, Ireland, are the owners of Irish on Grand, the St. Paul shop synonymous with all things Irish. The store was founded in 1990, but O’Mara and O’Neill have owned it since 2003.

From Aran sweaters to Winston’s breakfast sausages, Belleek China to Claddagh rings, if you’ve got a hankering for Irish clothing, gifts, food and jewelry, it’s a good bet Irish on Grand has it on their shelves.

Eye On St. Paul met with the couple on a recent snowy day to ask what it’s like to own a place considered Irish Central in what has long been a very Irish town. This interview was edited for length.

Q: You are not the first owners of the shop?

Maeve: No. My brother and sister-in-law, ex-sister-in-law now, started the shop.

Q: How did you get talked into taking over?

Liam: A moment of craziness. They spent a lot of time trying to sell it and they couldn’t get a buyer. And we’d hate to see it go. So that was the main reason. It would have gone. It would not have been sold and it would have gone.

Q: So you kept it in the family?

Liam: Well, the main thing was to keep the theme going, the store itself, the concept.

Q: That’s a beautiful sweater.

Liam: Thank you. Do you want it?

Q: What has been your favorite part of running the business?

Maeve: Interaction with people. We’ve made friends.

Q: I have read in your blog that the store is a gathering place for Irish expats.

Liam: I don’t think it’s intentional. I think it just happens that people stay because of that.

Maeve: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun though. A lot of good interaction.

Q: Do you attract people who get homesick?

Maeve: Yeah.

Liam: Not just Irish. English, Scottish. We sell food, products, that they miss.

Maeve: It was hard during COVID. We were sending goods out the back door without that contact. Like with the people sneaking home to the parents’ funerals and going to England. There was the English woman, she couldn’t go to her father’s funeral. And that made her mother not able to go. It was sad.

Q: It sounds to me that you’re more than a store. What else are you selling?

Liam: Psychology? I’m joking. I think as a result of what we do, it becomes more than it is. I mean, we’re there to make money. We’re not there just out of the goodness of our hearts. But at the same time, it turns out that you can do both.

Q: Tell me about Grand Avenue. You’ve been on Grand Avenue all this time and have seen a lot of changes. How are you weathering that?

Liam: We’re a destination store. We would not be necessarily depending on people coming to visit Grand. We do have a parking lot. So that always helps. But it’s more because of the nature of our business. We were going to survive. And she loves it.

Maeve: I love Grand Avenue and you know, I’m sorry, but Wet Paint is still there, Red Balloon is still there. Poppy [Fun Fashion] has moved in. Evergreen Collective is there. These independent people are still there. It’s those big-box stores that look at the numbers and go: “Woo, this isn’t good enough.” Right?

Q: Troubles on Grand are greatly exaggerated?

Liam: I think it appears that way because of if you drive down it, there’s a lot of empty spots. But there were a lot of buildings taken over by insurance companies. Pension funds. And now you have these other businesses, but they’re medical companies. It gives a different vibe.

Q: St. Paul has always had a very strong Irish identity. Has that remained?

Liam: I don’t know if you get that Irish feeling around the town anymore. I don’t. I talk to people of my generation, maybe slightly older, and they talk about the parishes [where they grew up]. They talk about the schools. That seems to be not as strong, right? I don’t know why that is. And I think that’s part of the way the world has changed. I think that has changed in St. Paul.

Q: Because people can travel more easily, what is the future of an Irish on Grand? Who’s your customer going to be?

Liam: I find that we are probably right now 40-60, 40% dependent on immigrants and people who came here, the other 60 are people who found the place and like what’s going on. The product stands for itself.

Maeve: People who have gone to Ireland and, when they come back, they’re interested in products and were, “Oh, I wish I bought [something].” They come into our store and see it. I visit the places where they’re made there. You know, I’ve been back [to Ireland] five times in 10 months. Generally, I go back twice a year.