Star Tribune
Meet the couple who puts 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 a 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.
Mohamed Omar is the new board chair of Hennepin Healthcare System, the organization that runs HCMC, making him Minnesota’s first Somali American hospital board leader.
The health care system board permanently appointed Omar to the position Wednesday at their regular meeting. He had served as interim chair since Babette Apland stepped down in September.
Omar has been on the volunteer board for three years, working on the finance, investment, audit and compliance committees. He is the chief administrative officer at the Washburn Center for Children and previously was chief financial officer at the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.
In a statement, Omar said he was excited to lead a hospital board in the state with the largest Somali American population in the U.S. He said he shared the health system’s dedication to providing “equitable, high-quality care.”
“My commitment is to deepen our community engagement, build more authentic connections between patients and team members, and build a confident future together,” Omar’s statement said.
CEO Jennifer DeCubellis and Nneka Sederstrom, chief health equity officer, praised Omar’s selection to lead the board. They said more inclusive leadership with a commitment to ending health disparities are key to HCMC’s success.
Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando, who is also on health system board, said she was excited to work with Omar. She said county leaders are dedicated to good stewardship of the “state’s last public safety-net hospital.”
“As the first Hennepin County Board Chair of color, I know how impactful it is for our communities to see themselves represented in public leadership,” Fernando said.
DULUTH – The Superior National Forest has lifted its forestwide campfire ban, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, effective Friday.
Recent rain and humidity have improved conditions across the national forest’s 3 million acres, forest officials said in a news release.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has also lifted fire restrictions in Cook, Koochiching, Lake and northern St. Louis counties.
Fire danger is still a concern this time of year, said Karen Harrison, DNR wildfire prevention specialist.
“As leaves fall and vegetation continues to dry out, it’s important for people to be cautious with anything that can cause a spark,” she said.
The national forest imposed its broad campfire ban nearly two weeks ago, after a third wildfire, named for Bogus Lake, was discovered on forest land. No significant fire activity has been reported in recent days for any of those three fires. A fourth fire inside the forest, the 8.5-acre Pfeiffer Lake Fire, started Oct. 17. It was contained within 24 hours, the Forest Service said.
Much of northeast Minnesota is still classified in the “severe drought” stage by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris was asked this week if she thought Donald Trump was a fascist, and she replied ‘’Yes, I do.’’ She subsequently called him the same thing herself, saying voters don’t want ‘’a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.’’
But what exactly is a fascist? And does the meaning of the word shift when viewed through a historical or political prism — especially so close to the end of a fraught presidential race?
An authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is often associated with the far right and characterized by a dictatorial leader who uses military forces to help suppress political and civil opposition.
History’s two most famous fascists were Nazi chief Adolf Hitler in Germany and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Known as Il Duce, or ”the duke,” Mussolini headed the National Fascist Party, which was symbolized by an eagle clutching a fasces — a bundle of rods with an axe among them.
At Mussolini’s urging, in October 1922, thousands of ”Blackshirts,” or ”squadristi,” made up an armed fascist militia that marched on Rome, vowing to seize power. Hitler’s Nazis similarly relied on a militia, known as the ”Brownshirts.” Both men eventually imposed single-party rule and encouraged violence in the streets. They used soldiers, but also fomented civilian unrest that pit loyalists against political opponents and larger swaths of everyday society.
Hitler and Mussolini censored the press and issued sophisticated propaganda. They played up racist fears and manipulated not just their active supporters but everyday citizens.
