Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts to see transition amidst St. Patrick’s Day Parade

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -It’s the 43rd annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Sioux Falls this Saturday and businesses downtown are preparing for the festivities.

While it’s an exciting time for many, a key business of the parade for years could be seeing some changes.

Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts has been a staple of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade for years and this year could be a year of transition of the store.

The shop has been open for 26 years and the Murphy family, owners of the shop, have been involved in the parade for even longer.

Generations of Murphy’s have had floats in each parade since the first one was held in 1980.

This year the family will have participated with floats in all 43 parades.

Although Dick and Sandy Murphy look forward to the parade and opening up their shop for those wanting Irish gifts.

They say this year it was time to look into the store’s legacy.

“We are at that retirement age, so we have to kind of look forward to that but also at the same time give it the legacy to continue on as an Irish gift store,” said Dick Murphy, Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts owner.

Saying they will miss serving those in Sioux Falls and surrounding areas.

“We love the store and love the customers; I mean the customer are everything and that’s going to be hard,” said Sandy Murphy, Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts owner.

Downtown Sioux Falls president, Joe Batcheller says the Murphy’s have made an impact on their customers but also the downtown community.

“Dick and Sandy Murphy are just great people, I mean you go in there and it’s like they’re opening their home to you and they want to sit there and chat and learn about you and they’re really good at building those relationships with their customers and they have really done a great job of helping to build the downtown community as well,” said Joe Batcheller, DTSF president.

The Murphy’s stress that it’s important to keep the legacy of the Irish store alive.

“We would like to always have the continuation of an Irish parade be accompanied by an Irish gift store and so that’s a part of our cultural heritage, we feature products from Ireland and two thirds of the store remains to be that,” said Dick Murphy.

Many in the community are hoping for the same.

‘It’s going to be sad to see Dick and Sandy go, we’re hoping that the Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts name will be a part of the downtown community for a long time to come,” said Batcheller.

As for the parade, the Murphy’s say they will still continue to participate for many years.

“The 44th annual parade, the Murphy’s will be there and as you say, those traditions ran true long before we even started this store,” said Dick Murphy.

Dick and Sandy Murphy say they are in the process of looking for buyers to keep the tradition of the store alive.

For more information on events taking place for St. Patrick’s Day you can follow the link at 43rd Annual St Patrick’s Day Parade - Downtown Sioux Falls (dtsf.com)

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