Ready for st. patrick’s day? all manner of goods from the emerald isle can be found at hollywood’s irish import shop

The Irish Import Shop is probably the only place in Los Angeles where you can buy a shillelagh, a shamrock and a Claddagh ring.

For decades, Richard and Annie Jones have provided such staples of Irish culture along with a wide variety of music, books, food and other trappings of the Emerald Isle to natives as well as those who have never been to Ireland.

The store is located in Hollywood and sells frozen Irish bacon (much wider and thicker than the U.S. kind), Waterford crystal glasses and Guinness beer sweatshirts (but not a single pint of the stuff itself). On a tall shelf behind the front counter are stacks of Irish wool sweaters. The store also has the largest selection of Belleek china in Southern California.

And hanging on a nail on the side of one of the shelves is a small cloth embroidered with the blessing: “May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and the road downhill all the way to your door.”

“You’ll never miss home when you come in here, you’ve got it all,” Richard Jones says.

Business has steadily improved over the past decade, fueled by an increasing interest in Irish music and culture. In 1988, when the store moved to its present location on North Vine Street, it was doing more than $200,000 a year in sales. That has doubled to $500,000 these days. While reluctant to talk business, Jones allows that things are pretty good these days.

“I just talked with my bookkeeper, and he said profits were up for ’99,” he said. “It’s been better every year recently, so that’s good.”

Various booms relating to Irish culture have helped. The “Riverdance” theatrical production, which started as a small piece on a European television show has become a world-wide touring sensation and fueled an interest in Irish dance. The store has done a brisk business in Irish dancing shoes as a result, along with selling “Riverdance” albums and videos.

Crazy for Claddagh rings

More recently has come the demand for Claddagh rings silver and gold jewelry that originally served as wedding bands. The appearance of the rings, which feature two hands holding a heart under a crown, on the hit television show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” brought an unexpected demand.

After the episode was aired, “we got calls from all over the country” for rings like the one the store had provided for the television show. “We’re the only store in L.A. that sells authentic Claddagh rings from Ireland,” Jones said.

The rings go for anywhere from $100 to as much as $500, and have slightly different designs for men and women. As in the case of “Buffy,” movie and television studios sometimes come calling for Irish flags, music or other memorabilia to use in various productions.

Over the years, generations of customers have grown up with the store, as it has served as a meeting place for Irish folks to swap stories and information.

“People who were children waiting in the car as their dad talked with Richard now come in with their children,” Annie Jones said. “They come in for what in Irish is called the ‘craik’ gossip, news, just to talk.”

This week, the craik is flowing particularly thick: St. Patrick’s Day is one of the busiest times of the year for the shop. “Then, I don’t get a chance to get a drink,” Richard Jones said with a laugh. “That’s the sad part of it.”

Jones is from County Cork in the southern part of the Irish Republic, but has been in Los Angeles for more than 40 years. He came here in 1957 from Canada, where he had emigrated a few years before. He soon found a job as a municipal bus driver, and worked for the city for 30 years before retiring in 1988.

Broadcast beginnings

In 1960, he started hosting a 30-minute radio show featuring Irish folk music on Sunday afternoons that ran for several years. “The Shamrock Show” was an unexpected success, and its popularity fueled demand for Irish music. In response, Jones started a wholesale business, selling imported records.

“I started selling over the air, and after a couple of years opened a store,” he recalled.

The shop was then on Melrose Avenue and sold some souvenirs along with the music. Jones operated it for a couple of years without a license, until he got caught.

“I didn’t know you needed a license,” he grinned. “But (city authorities) were pretty good about it.”

He married his wife, Annie (from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland), in 1963 and soon after moved the business to Beverly Boulevard near Normandie Avenue, setting up a 500-square-foot store near what was then a sizable Irish community.

While he continued working as a bus driver, Annie minded the store and took the lead raising their four children. “That was the secret, marry and make your wife do the work,” Annie joked.

The more popular the store became, the greater the demand was to supply other goods along with music and trinkets.

“The thing people would ask for was food,” Richard Jones said. “Especially those who had only recently come from Ireland. They’d say, ‘how come we can’t get Irish bacon?’ and the like.”