Celeb Shot: Paul O'Donnell
SLAH catches up with the owner of Celtic Treasures—who once ate potato chips with Sinéad O'Connor—in time for the Irish gift shop's 30th anniversary celebration.
When you’re meeting up with the owner of Saratoga’s only Irish import store just eight short days before St. Patrick’s Day, there’s really only one place to do it: The Parting Glass. The iconic Irish bar made even more sense this past Wednesday night, since Paul O’Donnell, the aforementioned owner of Celtic Treasures, was meeting his music group there to play some Irish jigs later that evening. “We’re the Mad for Trad Pan-Celtic Players,” Paul explained. “It’s just an open jam. It could be six, 12, 18, 24 of us—we never know.”
But before Paul, a Irish flutist, joined four other musicians in the room of Parting Glass that I call the bingo hall, the two of us grabbed a couple Great Lakes Brewing ambers at the bar (during St. Paddy’s season, Parting Glass has only Irish beer on tap) and got to talking about his 30 years running Celtic Treasures. The shop, which carries everything from Irish jewelry and fragrances to crystal and groceries, is hosting an anniversary celebration this weekend, complete with in-store deals, an art reception with local Irish musician/artist Kevin McKrell from noon-3pm today (I did not, admittedly, ask about a snow plan), and music by Irish trio Six Penny Bit from 1-4pm tomorrow. After our talk, I went home and started looking up flights to Ireland (Newburgh to Dublin direct, baby), so, yeah—Paul is selling Ireland even when he’s not actually selling his Irish goods. Here’s how the conversation went.
—Natalie
Tell me about your connection to Ireland and why you opened an Irish import store.
My mom’s from Ireland, so I’d spend my summers there working on my grandfather’s farm. It was a great experience and it was a big part of my formative years—farm labor in Ireland. That always made me want to be a farmer. When I was going to school, I was working for a horse farm here in Saratoga and I was really was into it. I did that for most of the ’80s, then migrated into Saratoga Fence, and then I went into agricultural sales. My territory was all of New York, New England and then they gave me Eastern Canada. It was beautiful country up there and it was a lot like Ireland—I mean, Nova Scotia is named after Scotland. I remember talking to a farmer on Prince Edward Island and he said to me. “So, man, you’re good at sales and all, but what do you really want to do?” And I said, “I don’t know, something to do with Ireland—my heart and soul is Ireland. He goes, “Young man, what the hell are you waiting for? Do it!” And that was the best advice ever. From Prince Edward Island I called up Nick Palmetto, who was renting a store in the Saratoga Marketplace on Broadway and I said, “If it’s still available, save it for me: I’m opening an Irish store.” I called that in from Canada and everybody thought I was crazy. Knock on wood: I’m here 30 years later.
So where’d you begin?
My research was all done on the barstool down there [points to the other end of the Parting Glass bar] in ’81. I came to Saratoga—how fortuitous?—the same year this bar opened. Bob Cohan, the original owner, and Joan, who still owns the bar, were my market research people. I sat down with them and picked their brains. Bob even gave me my first CD rack for the store. He was very helpful when we first started.
Is your clientele mostly tourists or locals?
It’s definitely a mix, but I’ve noticed that during the past two years it’s been a ton of tourists, and I’m so grateful for that. You know the locals because they’re always buying groceries—they’re addicted to my tea, my Barry’s Tea. They’re like, “Ah, I only have two bags left, I had to rush down here.” They’re mostly hoarding my groceries. We do a huge amount of tea, delicious Cadbury chocolate bars—all from Ireland. People love our bacon and sausage from an Irish butcher from the City that’s made with Irish ingredients. The tourists are buying sweaters all the time, capes, Claddagh rings—that’s our biggest seller. Everybody loves those.
Running a sort of niche store, would you say you get to know your customers more than the typical store owner?
I think so. I’ll call people—I won’t know their last names, so I’ll call them by what they buy. We had a lady named Tina who always bought this black currant drink call Ribena, so I called her Tina Ribena. And then we have so many customers named Murphy. There’s a million Murphys. We had someone named Matt “The Tayto” Murphy because he always bought Taytos. So I’ll nickname my customers by what they buy.
Have you ever had any famous customers?
I did have one. I just read her biography. She’s had a very interesting but difficult life and I’m still a fan of hers. It’s Sinéad O’Connor. She came in our store in the mid-’90s. She was so cool, she was really low-key, and she had a crew cut—she wasn’t completely bald. I had been across the street having lunch, and I come back in and my manager goes, “Hey, Paul, look who it is!” And I go, “What is it, a shoplifter?” She goes, “No, it’s Sinéad O’Connor!” And I go, “Oh my god, it’s Sinéad O’Connor!” So, I swear to god, I open up a pack of potato chips, which are called crisps—a pack of Taytos—and I go, “Miss O’Connor, would you like some Taytos?” And she goes, “Oh, I’d love some!” And she ripped into the bag and it was like I interviewed her for 15 minutes. It was just the three of us in the store. And she spent $700! She bought so much stuff. I go, “Miss O’Connor, um, aren’t you from Dublin?” “Yes.” “Why are you buying all this stuff in Saratoga?” “Well, it’s for my US road crew—the roadies. I’m going back to Ireland, and I just want to give everybody here a gift.” I gave her a Celtic Treasures T-shirt and was like, “Wear this the next time you’re on television…but not when you’re ripping up the pope.”
Why’d you choose to live and work in Saratoga?
I grew up in Long Island. And where do people from Long Island go to college? Plattsburgh, because it’s the furthest away from Long Island. (Sorry, Long Island!) When I was in Plattsburgh, my dad got involved with a horse farm here at Exit 12 and I just fell in love with Saratoga.
What three Saratoga businesses (besides your own) do you frequent the most?
Definitely Mountainman. I hang out there so much that people think I work there. One day I knew one of their managers was nearby and somebody came up to me, and I just did this to bust his chops. They wanted to know about some fancy, expensive fleece jacket. I go “Yeah, yeah, yeah—fleece is all good, we all own fleece. But, you know, there’s nothing like an Irish sweater—you’d really oughta go right up the street to Celtic Treasures.” And I’m saying this so the manager can hear and he goes, “O’Donnell, out! Out! No poaching my customers. Out!” So I got kicked out of Mountainman for trying to steal customers. But I’ve got to say Parting Glass, because I’ve been coming here the longest of anyplace. And The Local. I love my mug club.
What’s next for Celtic Treasures? Do you ever think about retirement?
I don’t have a succession plan. My son is a successful salesman down in New York City. We’ll just ride it out and see how long we can go. I love Saratoga—I don’t see myself packing up and moving to Florida.
What’s the secret to running a store that’s been around three decades?
I always tell a new employee to greet everyone who comes in the store like a guest coming in your house. Eye contact. Say, “Hey, how are you doing? How’s it going?” Engage. Just engage. We don’t ever jump or pounce on people, but just be warm and welcoming, because that’s what the Irish are. The Irish are known to be the friendliest, most welcoming people in the world. You might be fifth-generation Irish, have never set foot there, and when you get there, they’ll say, “Welcome home.”