POLAND, Ohio – Shawn Mulhall started Finnegan’s Cottage Custom Made Irish Gifts as a tribute to his family and his heritage.

“Growing up, St Patrick’s Day was the same as Christmas, really,” he said. “People wanted to be the first people at my dad’s house and the last to leave.”

His mother would prepare a spread of food, and his dad played Irish music at the family’s home on Youngstown’s south side.

The shop inside S & T Engraving and Awards at 80 S. Main St. is named for Mulhall’s paternal grandmother, Nora Finnegan, and shirts, cups and other gifts bear sayings his father, Robert Emmet Mulhall, pronounced while Mulhall was growing up.

“I’m going to dangle my feet” – what Mulhall’s father told his mother when he was headed to the pub – and “Laddiebuck” – what Mulhall’s father called him – are some examples.

Shamrocks, the Celtic harp, Celtic cross and neverending knot adorn picture frames and Christmas ornaments.

And St. Patrick’s Day has always been a big event for the Mulhall family.

“​​I carry on the traditions that my father taught me, and my girls are the same way,” he said of his three adult daughters. “My girls, [know] Saint Patrick’s Day – that’s a special day, and we celebrate every year together.”

Mulhall and his wife, Renee, and adult daughters planned to spend the weekend leading up to St. Patrick’s Day visiting local restaurants and bars for the celebration and the Irish music.

One of those stops was Birdfish Brewery in Columbiana. Finnegan has made commemorative St. Patrick’s Day mugs – fashioned from buffalo horns – for the brewery’s holiday celebration.

“The ancient Irish used these for prestigious celebrations,” Mulhall said, adding that the mugs were expected to go fast at the event.

Josh Dunn, co-owner of Birdfish, said the brewery started working with S & T Engraving about five years ago. 

Shawn and Renee Mulhall are Birdfish customers and came to an event.

“I was having a conversation with them about the different capabilities they have and they presented a stainless steel fliptop Octoberfest stein, and we did those last Octoberfest,” Dunn said.

It proved popular. He attributes that to its uniqueness as well as it being engraved locally.

Birdfish includes specialty items for special beer releases. 

He told Mulhall that if he ever came across an item that might work for a release to let Dunn know.

“He presented this ale horn and I said, ‘Let’s do them for St. Patrick’s Day,” he said. “And I knew Shawn and Renee are Irish, and they have pride in Youngstown and their heritage and all of that. So I figured he’d be excited to do something like this.”

Dunn ordered 150 and said the shop did a great job with them.

Dan McRoberts at Rat Creative in Lisbon created the graphic design for the engraving.

The brewery has always played on Irish being highlighted in Birdfish – the I and R and the ISH – and the engraving of those letters on the mug mirrors an ancient Celtic penguin carving, Dunn said. 

Mulhall’s first business, S & T Engraving, started in 1994, printing, engraving trophies, plaques and other items for businesses and schools and doing embroidery.

“And we actually do [work] for all over the United States,” Mulhall said. “We did work for the NCAA – the Naismith Award – which was given to the Division I basketball coach of the year, men’s and women’s.”

The shop has also done work for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, he said.

Mulhall started making shirts with Irish sayings for his family, and people started asking to buy them. At first, he kept it low-key, not wanting to compete with House of Erin, an Irish store formerly in Boardman. When it closed a few years ago, he ramped up Finnegan’s. The store employs four, including Mulhall.

But for Mulhall, St. Patrick’s Day is one way to remember family.

“It reminds me of my father, and bringing us up, what he stood for,” he said. “My father was a very, very loyal person. He believed in family. He took care of his family. He was a very religious man.”

Mulhall’s grandfather, Dennis Mulhall, was one of the founders of the former Immaculate Conception Church in Youngstown, he said.

Finnegan’s Cottage Custom Made Irish Gifts is a way for Mulhall to honor their legacy and his heritage.

“It is a tribute to family – absolutely, 100%,” he said. “And it’s a tribute to what the Irish had to go through with religious persecution, the famine.”

Pictured at top: Shawn Mulhall, owner of Finnegan’s Cottage Custom Made Irish Gifts.