Mar 4, 2008

There’s plenty of Cleveland-area places to buy all things IrishBy Laura DeMarcoCleveland.com

As Marcel Proust with his madeleine knew, a taste of the past — literally — is a powerful thing. For more than 50 years, tastes and treats from long ago and across the ocean have made Gaelic Imports food and gift shop in Cleveland a top destination with Irish, Scottish, Welsh and British expats.

“About 60 percent of my customers are expats,” says Jim Henderson, who has owned the import store with his wife for the last decade, and who moved to the United States from Scotland with his family when he was 10. “They come here for things they remember from back home.”

Those remembered favorites include Black Magic candies and Thorntons toffee, Crunchies and Flakes candy bars, Nestle Aero bars, Shepherd’s Pies, Irish bangers made on the premises, blood pudding, Irish bacon from Chicago and homemade sausage rolls.

This time of year those favorites — especially for Henderson’s Irish clientele, or those who just wish they were Irish — also include homemade, traditional sweet scones with raisins and buttermilk and, of course, sodabread.

Read complete article.