Send your Mum to Ireland with us as a Mother's Day gift.
Great friends and great memories were made on our 2022 tour to Ireland
Read MoreCome to Ireland with us in September 2022!
Ireland here we come. We haven’t been able to do a tour since 2019. We can’t wait to go back in 2022. Want to go? Reach out HERE
NOW OPEN!
We hope you and your family are keeping safe and well. We are now open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10am-2pm. If you do not feel comfortable coming into the shop we have no problem bringing your order to you. Feel free to order online and click pick up for no fee.
We have missed our customers and wish we could open for more hours during the week and maybe as the summer goes on we can. With no camps happening at the moment I need to take this time to be with my kids.
This is Fàilte’s 19th year in business! So a big thank you to all our fantastic customers!!!
Come to Ireland with Failte!!
Half way to St. Patrick's Day celebration!
And that's a wrap!! Thank you to all our Soda bread contestants, our wonderful judges Mayor Linda Gorton, Bill Meck, Deirdre Lyons and Michelle Primm. Congratulations to our Winner Deirdre O'Dwyer, 2nd Nick Kearney and 3rd place Mary O'Callaghan. Thank you Sive Photography for the amazing pictures that captured all the fun we had!!!
Thank you for 17 fantastic years in business!
Save the date!! 15% off!
We appreciate your support!
Failte's October 2018 Trip to Ireland
Here is a brief outline of this years trip. Proper itinerary will be posted soon.
Below is a rough draft & pictures of where we would like to visit this year! I'm excited about this trip for a number of reasons...flying in and out of Shannon and missing the madness of Dublin airport. We will be staying in wonderful towns and will have lots of time to explore. I would love you to feel relaxed after this years trip and not tired and needing another vacation! Most of the hotels we are staying at have pools and offer spa services!!!! 😍😍
We will be starting our trip after arriving in Shannon driving to Killarney where we will stay in town for two nights!!! While in Killarney we will lots of time to explore the town. We will take a day trip to visit The Ring of Kerry.
Our next stop will be Kinsale where we will stay another two nights and will have lots of time to explore this lovely town. We will visit the Beara Peninsula, Bantry House, Skibbereen, Clonakilty, Beal Na Bladh. We are working on a cooking class at Ballymaloe cooking school and will know by the end of the week if this will work.
Our next stop will be Kilkenny for another 2 nights. We will have a whole day to explore the town! We will also visit Chair Castle, Kilkenny Castle and Bunratty Folk Park.
Our next stop for two nights will be Ennis in Co. Clare. While in Ennis we will have lots of time to explore this lovely town. We will also visit The Cliffs of Moher & Lisdoonvarna.
The dates we be around October 6th- October 15th
Please email me with any questions you may have contact@failteimports.com
Irish Scone Bake Off!
Can you bake Irish scones like nobody else? Let us be the judge of that!! Join us for a fun evening....bring a friend or 5!
August 25th 6.30pm-8.30pm in Spiders Well next to Failte.
We will have 3 categories. 1) Traditional scones (plain) 2) Non-trad scones (add ins) 3) out of a packet. Please email me if you would like to be a part of our fabulous SCONE BAKE OFF! contact@failteimports.com
Go HERE for more information
Yummy Irish Scone!
Free Yoga Fridays
Woman's Wellness Day at Failte.
Encouraging our customers to be disloyal!
#lexcoffeetrail
Failte has teamed up with other local coffee shops to encourage our loyal coffee customers to be disloyal. Visit all coffee shops on the disloyalty card and get your last one free. #lexcoffeetrail
Failte has been serving coffee for just over a year. We have gained a lot of new customers because of our great tasting coffee! It makes us feel great to help support other local businesses.
Stop by and pick up your DISLOYALTY card today!
Failte Event July 15th 2016
Stop in during July’s Gallery HOP for pictures, words and a bit of the brogue!
Join Failte Irish Shop at the Spiders Well at McCarthy’s as we highlight the work of some of our favorite artists — author James Nicholson and photographer Sive Doyle.
Stop by Friday, July 15 between 6pm - 9pm to meet James and Sive. The Spiders Well is located next to McCarthy’s Irish Bar, at 117 S. Upper Street in downtown Lexington.
Author James Nicholson grew up on a horse farm in Lexington and attended the University of Kentucky. His first book "The Kentucky Derby" won the Kentucky History Award, and his second book, "Never Say Die" was a finalist for the Kentucky Literary Award for non-fiction. He practices law in Lexington, teaches in the Honors Program at UK, and lives in Versailles with his wife and two young sons.
Photographer Sive Doyle is originally from Dublin, Ireland, but has called Kentucky home for the past 20 years. She spent 17 years working in the Kentucky thoroughbred industry and left it to start her own photography business three years ago. Sive specializes in equine, family, and children's photography and in her spare time loves to photograph wildlife and nature.
Failte Irish Shop has been a destination for the Irish community for the last 14 years. Lexington’s first stop for everything Irish, Failte offers a wide variety of food, clothing, jewelry, and gifts from its cozy location on South Upper Street. We’ll have extended hours during Gallery Hop so you can stop in, visit, and take home some Irish treats.
Lucky to be living in the Bluegrass!
On June 10th 2016 I will be celebrating 20 years of living in the Bluegrass. I came here for just 3 weeks. Yep there is a story there! There are lots of Irish living in the Bluegrass state and I'm lucky enough to deliver Irish goods to their door which normally means driving onto a beautiful farm! This week while I was delivering the goods from my shop I slowed down and looked around and I'm happy to share some photos of these amazing farms and the animals who live there! One is American pharoah....now you don't see him everyday unless your lucky enough to be IRISH living in Kentucky!
Tea, coffee and scones bringing more of Ireland to Kentucky
In July we started to sever tea, scones and coffee in our little shop. People always like to come in for a chat and why not serve up something warm or cold and yummy to keep the conversation going! It's been fun and successful. So when your downtown stop in for a cuppa and a chat!
Come celebrate 14 years in business with us on 12/12/15
Liza with her kids Elodie and Conway
Get 14% off all day and starting at 6pm join us for Irish Coffees and snacks. Music and Irish dancers will start at 7pm. THANK YOU for 14 great years!!
Sip, Shop and Shine
Join us on September 17th for our first ever ladies night! It also happens to be half way to St. Patricks Day. We will have shop specials, drink specials at McCarthy's, pre book your hat for the Breeders cup and the Ireland trip winner announced. All this is happening at Failte. Join us onSeptember 17th at 7.30pm for a fun free evening! Failte will have some vino, some nibbles, beauty experts from DIOR to do makeup and advise on beauty. It's going to be fun fun FUN!
Failte just got a new paint job!
Stop by and see Failte's new loveliness! Get a cuppa and have a chat!
Making our signature cappuccino a little more special and Irish
At Failte we want to give our cappuccino a little bit of Irish too! So when you order one don't be surprised to see some Cadbury's sprinkled on top accompanied by a Bewley's biscuit! YUM!
Now Serving Tea & Coffee
I have always wanted to have a tearoom but never really had the space to do it. Also things were going well with having an Irish import shop so why rock the boat? Well with the economy and with the hole in the center of Downtown Lexington I have found the need to stir things up a bit and try new things. We are now serving a proper cup of Irish tea and lovely coffee from Magic Bean roasters. We hope you stop in soon and enjoy a cuppa!
Read about us in the paper!
Liza Betz owner of Failte Irish Imports
As she prepares to celebrate the 13th anniversary of opening Fáilte Irish Imports, Dublin native Liza Hendley Betz feels as if the luck of the Irish has been replaced by the curse of downtown redevelopment.
For the first eight years after she opened her shop in 2001, Hendley's business prospered on South Limestone, just off the corner of High Street.
Betz's bread and butter was selling Irish bread and butter — plus sausages, Bewley's tea, Batchelor's canned beans, Cadbury's sweets and other comfort food from home to the Emerald Isle's large expatriate community in Central Kentucky. She also did a good business in Irish tweeds, Celtic jewelry and souvenirs.
Then, with two weeks' warning, South Limestone was shut down for 11 months for a major street reconstruction project.
Her business struggled, but she was able to move in early 2010 to her dream location: beside McCarthy's Irish Bar on South Upper Street. But the old red-and-green building also was across the street from the stalled CentrePointe project, which was then a grassy field.
"This is where I always wanted to be," Betz said of the close proximity to McCarthy's, a social center for the Irish community where she used to serve drinks.
As for CentrePointe, she figured, "I'll deal with it when it happens. It can't be any worse than what happened before."
Or could it? Last December, all of the street parking across from her shop was closed after CentrePointe's developer got city permission to begin blasting and excavation.
The street was a noisy, dusty mess for most of this year as the CentrePointe block was converted into a 40-foot limestone pit. Then everything stopped. Developer Dudley Webb is now trying to raise money to build an underground garage.
To make matters worse, the block of North Upper Street above Fáilte has been closed for months so the old First National Bank Building can be renovated into 21C Museum Hotel.
"This used to be a busy intersection," she said. "You can go out here now and do a dance in the middle of the street. It's hard these days to keep a business going with all this around you."
Betz has rented a single parking space beside her shop, which has made it more convenient for customers to stop in for quick purchases.
Like many retailers, Fáilte's prime season is between Thanksgiving and New Year's, not just for gift items but because Irish Americans want food from home for their holiday celebrations.
On Dec. 12, the shop will celebrate its 13th anniversary with a 10 percent off sale, plus a party with Guinness beer, souvenir glasses and Irish music next door at McCarthy's between 7 and 9 p.m.
Betz said she needs a big December, although her holiday season will extend to St. Patrick's Day on March 17. She recently became a United States citizen, so she also is thinking about something special for next July 4 — if she can keep the doors open that long.
"It's the worst time we've ever had," said Betz, whose husband is a horse veterinarian. She minds the shop while caring for their two small children.
Like any good entrepreneur, Betz has been looking for ways to broaden her business beyond food and gifts. She has organized annual tours of Ireland, and she's looking to use her Irish expertise to grow the travel business. She also is thinking about clearing some space in the tiny shop for a couple of tables to serve tea.
"I know I need to change things up a bit," she said. "But I'm afraid to put money into anything right now."
Betz also knows that, in the long run, she will have a great location when 21C opens and whatever ends up being built at CentrePointe is finished. But, as the famous saying goes, people don't eat in the long run.
"I'm in the middle of downtown," she said. "Who would think this is a bad location?"
Tom Eblen: (859) 231-1415. Email: teblen@herald-leader.com. Twitter: @tomeblen. Blog: tomeblen.bloginky.com
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/11/30/3568082/tom-eblen-for-owner-of-irish-shop.html?fb_action_ids=801118673283137&fb_action_types=og.comments&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582#storylink=cpy