by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
While the closest St. Patrick’s parade today will be in Savannah, one local businessman will celebrate his Irish heritage with a building dedication followed by a little bit of revelry downtown.
At 5 p.m. today, Sean Mulholland, owner of Mulholland Investigation and Security Consulting, will have a ribbon cutting ceremony dedicating and naming his building at 221 E Adams St. The building is being named “The Shamrock Building” in honor of Mulholland’s Irish heritage and his company’s logo - a large monogram M situated above a shamrock.
“This is just a nice thing we planned,” Mulholland said. “A lot of the buildings downtown have a name so we are just keeping with that theme.”
Mulholland said he sent out about 500 invitations for the dedication event which will include a blessing of the building and a ribbon cutting followed by a reception at the Burrito Gallery.
“I tried to find a bagpiper but I couldn’t find one that wasn’t busy on St. Patrick’s Day,” he said.
Though it has been around since 1996, Mulholland’s business has been housed in several different offices around the downtown area. Mulholland has been settled in his current building since December 2003 and said that is where he will remain until the company outgrows it.
Though many people in the U.S. claim to have a little green in their blood, Mulholland’s heritage is the real McCoy. His immigrant grandparents made the trip from Ireland’s County Down to New York City’s Ellis Island immigration port in the early 1900’s and his father is a first generation Irish-American.
So, for Mulholland, St. Patrick’s Day is always a special day.
“The real idea of the holiday is to have camaraderie and fellowship and an opportunity to celebrate Irish heritage,” he said.
A native of New York, Mulholland said he misses the big city’s St. Patrick’s Day parades. As a sergeant for the New York Police Department, Mulholland not only got to watch many of the parades but got to participate in them also as a member of the NYPD’s lauded Emerald Society.
Currently, Jacksonville doesn’t have a St. Patrick’s Day parade but Mulholland said he hopes the “Shamrock Building” dedication will carry on as an annual celebration of the Irish holiday.
“We are looking forward to making this an anniversary type of day,” he said. “It will give us the opportunity to have an annual celebration when St. Patrick’s Day comes around. Maybe we can even start our own small Jacksonville parade.
“We had the Super Bowl (parade) so we should be able to have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. too.”