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Browne's Irish Marketplace to celebrate 138th St. Patrick's Day in Kansas City

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Browne's Irish Marketplace to celebrate 138th St. Patrick's Day in Kansas City


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Browne’s Irish Marketplace in Kansas City’s Midtown sits less than half a mile from the start of the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. The shop’s celebrations can be traced back 138 years.

Browne’s Irish Marketplace to celebrate 138th St. Patrick’s Day in Kansas City

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Ed and Mary Flavin, immigrants of County Kerry, Ireland, first established Flavin’s Market inside their family home at 27th and Jefferson streets in 1887. The Flavins moved the store to its current location at 33rd Street and Pennsylvania in 1901.

“It was outside of town, so it was really brave, and they built the building we’re sitting in,” said Kerry Browne, great-granddaughter of the Flavins and current co-owner.

Jake Weller/KSHB

Browne’s Irish Marketplace

Now, located in a part of Kansas City that isn’t considered the outside of town, Browne’s offers St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Festivities begin with Irish rolls at 9 a.m. and continue until “at least” 4 p.m.

“You can just walk up the street and watch the parade and then walk back afterwards and have lunch and a pint and keep the day going,” Browne said.

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The couple sold eggs, local goods and imports their relatives from Ireland shipped to them.

“I can’t imagine shipping at that time,” Browne said.

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Kerry Browne

When Margaret, daughter of the Flavins, married Jim Browne, they began operating the store in 1915, according to the shop’s website.

“We are so fortunate that they kept going during World Wars and the Depression and all that they went through to get here,” Browne said.

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Their eldest son, Bob, and his wife, Marjorie, took on the store’s operations in 1955. Twenty-six years later in 1981, Browne and her husband, John McClain, took over ownership.

“We lost my dad, and it was a way of holding onto him, and it’s so true because he’s here all of the time,” Browne said. “He was a cigar smoker, and we sometimes get a whiff of his cigar, so we know he’s here and keeping an eye on us all the time.”

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Browne’s Irish Marketplace located at 3300 Pennsylvania Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.

Continuing the store’s legacy is part of what Browne said makes her proud to be Irish.

“I love how they (the Irish) hang onto their heritage, the people who came before them really matter, they want to pay tribute to them, and that matters to me a lot,” she said.

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Browne and her husband have operated the market longer than any of her other family members. They go to Ireland a couple of times a year to source the store’s authentic goods.

She said during COVID, the Irish government reached out and told them Browne’s Irish Marketplace is the oldest Irish business outside of Ireland.

“When you talk about what it means to keep going, that’s a lot of pressure,” she said. “Like, OK, now we really have to keep going.”

Browne said her college-age son, Rory, is all about continuing the story of Browne’s Irish Marketplace.

“It’s all he wants to do,” she said. “So, it’s exciting, there’s a future for Browne’s. He’ll be the fifth generation to run it.”

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The business often offers events like live music and bingo in addition to its deli, full bar and Irish goods. The marketplace is looking to expand its operations to include private whiskey tastings and a speakeasy, Browne said.

“When people are here, they, throughout life, want to share their big moments at Browne’s, and that’s so meaningful,” she said.

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Jake Weller/KSHB

Shea McEnerney, left, and his dad Jim McEnerney, right, enjoy a drink at Browne’s Irish Marketplace on March 16, 2025.

Jim McEnerney, a regular, brings his family to Browne’s often. He enjoyed a pint with his son, Shea, at the market on Sunday.

“We’re very proud Americans because of our Irish heritage, and when you walk into Browne’s, you feel like you’re in the heart of Ireland,” he said.

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McEnerney said it’s easy to make friends at Browne’s. He said his family has started signing traditional Irish music at the store, and the “next thing you know, the whole place is singing while they’re drinking their beers and having conversations.”

“If you’ve been here, no explanation necessary; if you haven’t, no explanation possible,” he said.

Browne said St. Patrick’s Day is a day to celebrate what it means to be Irish with all of Kansas City.

“Obviously, we’re Irish year-round, but we’re proud to share that Irishness with people of every descent,” she said.

Four generations — and one day, five generations — later, the story of Browne’s continues.

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“Even my great-grandparents, when they opened this little thing in 1887, they never would have imagined we’d still be here, but I hope we’re doing them proud, I hope they look down and are grateful,” Browne said.

KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.





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Kansas City Symphony and Michelle Cann Perform Uplifting Concert Featuring a Variety of American Styles and Voices. – KC STUDIO

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Kansas City Symphony and Michelle Cann Perform Uplifting Concert Featuring a Variety of American Styles and Voices. – KC STUDIO


A rich variety of American musical composers and works graced the stage of Helzberg Hall Sat., June 20, as the Kansas City Symphony performed its season ending program. It was no surprise that an American-themed concert was planned a mere two weeks before the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. What was more surprising, yet very welcome, was the nature and diversity of the musical voices included on the program.

Guest conductor Peter Oundjian opened the evening with the music of Joan Tower, a Grammy Award winning contemporary composer whose music we don’t hear often enough in Kansas City. Her Suite from Concerto for Orchestra is a distillation of music from the larger Concerto for Orchestra and was commissioned by Oundjian and his Yale Philharmonia in 2025. It is a dramatic and technically challenging work with a complex harmonic language, at times tonal but with free use of dissonance.

The music was also intense and unrelenting in its pace and excitement. Oundjian had total control over the score, effectively cueing and expressively anticipating the powerful rhythmic content. Just when you thought the music couldn’t get any faster, louder and more intense, it did, driving to its exciting conclusion. The ensemble delivered a very convincing performance.

Florence Price is a 20th-century African American composer who earned significant regional attention during her lifetime but was not universally known. Her music is receiving much more attention in the 21st century since many unknown scores were discovered in the attic of her summer house in 2009. Scholars and performers are just now coming to grips with her work: the first scholarly biography was published in 2020 and a collection of scholarly essays on all aspects of her music was just released in March of this year.  

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Soloist Michelle Cann has been an active proponent of Price’s music for the past ten years. In a conversation a few days before the concert, I asked her what attracted her to the composer. She answered “Her musical language has such an amazing mix of styles that fit so well together. Also, there is something visceral and powerful in her music.”

Composer Florence Price

Cann, in her Kansas City debut, compellingly demonstrated the power of Price’s music in a performance of the Concerto in One Movement for Piano and Orchestra. While the title says it is in a single movement, there were three sections that seemed like independent movements. From the outset Cann employed a warm legato tone. Technically adroit, she exhibited the chordal and dreamy passages, travelling up and down the keyboard. Oundjian maintained a good balance between orchestra and soloist. There were a few intonation problems in the upper strings near the end of the first section.

The second section was slow and lyrical. Cann played the music, which sounded like a spiritual, with a heartfelt sensuous tone. She was joined by oboist Kristina Fulton in a lovely duet throughout the movement. The exciting finale was based on an African American Juba dance, featuring strong syncopations and a rollicking sound. It is clear that Price’s music represents an important part of America’s musical legacy and deserves much more attention, and, of course, many more performances and recordings.

As a performer, Cann has it all: passion, expression, technique, sensitivity and extraordinary musicality. She demonstrated it next in George Gershwin’s audience favorite, the Rhapsody in Blue. Cann and the orchestra played with alternating bluesy fervor with free rhythm and technical precision, and the audience responded with an excited ovation.  As an encore, she wowed the audience with a set of high-powered jazzy improvisations on Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor by African American pianist Hazel Scott.

Photo credit: Steven Mareazi Willis

The concert ended with Dvořák’s classic Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, “From the New World.” At the beginning of the concert, Oundjian assured the audience that this, too, is an American work, “since it was written on East 17th Street in Manhattan.” Conducting without a score, Oundjian elicited a dramatic reading of the composition in response to his impassioned direction. The opening movement featured a rich romantic sound, although occasional attention to detail seemed lacking, with some issues in synchronization, balance and transitions in tempo. The occasional slips were forgiven in the exquisite second movement. Matthew Lengas played the famous soulful English horn theme with supple grace and beauty.

This work is quite a showcase for an orchestra. All sections are featured throughout the composition; many soloists are highlighted and there are regular contrasts in mood and tempo. The performers responded persuasively, especially in the explosive finale.

There is one more performance of this program on Sun., June 21at 2 p.m. at the Kauffman Center. The Kansas City Symphony will also present a European Tour Send-Off Concert on Friday, August 21 at 7:00 p.m.  Tickets and more information about these events and the 2026-27 season can be found at www.kcsymphony.org.

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This concert was reviewed on Saturday, June 20, 2026.



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Salvador Perez attended the Ecaudor-Curaçao match at Arrowhead. So did other royals — from the Netherlands

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Salvador Perez attended the Ecaudor-Curaçao match at Arrowhead. So did other royals — from the Netherlands


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Royals captain Salvador Perez, along with teammates Starling Marte and Carter Jensen, attended Saturday evening’s World Cup match at Arrowhead Stadium.

So did some other royals!

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands began Saturday by cheering the Dutch past Sweden in Houston.

The monarchs ended the day by watching Curacao make some history against Ecuador in Kansas City.

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Netherlands King Willem-Alexander, left, Queen Máxima and Princess Ariane, right, watch the World Cup Group E soccer match between Ecuador y Curacao in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)(Ed Zurga | AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

The small island nation of Curacao is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and that makes King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima the heads of state. So, after a quick flight north Saturday, the royal couple dutifully swapped out their bright orange scarves of Het Oranje Legioen they wore to their earlier match with bright blue ones for The Blue Wave.

Curacao, the smallest World Cup team in population and size, made its tournament debut last Sunday in a 7-1 loss to Germany. But it bounced back from that defeat to earn a 0-0 draw with La Tri and earn its first-ever point in the tournament.

“It is an extra-special World Cup because we have both the Netherlands and Curacao,” Willem-Alexander told RTL-TV. “So we have twice as many teams to cheer for. A great opportunity to cheer on both the Blues and the Oranges. All in all, it will be a special World Cup for me with two teams, and I naturally hope they go extremely far.”

A general view during the second half of the World Cup Group E soccer match between Ecuador...
A general view during the second half of the World Cup Group E soccer match between Ecuador and Curacao in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)(Reed Hoffmann | AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)

The Netherlands moved one step closer to the World Cup knockout round after a 5-1 win over Sweden.

Brian Brobbey and Cody Gakpo scored two goals apiece to help coach Ronald Koeman’s team bounce back from a disappointing draw in its opener and move atop Group F. The Netherlands concludes group play against Tunisia on Thursday in Kansas City.

Curacao is still alive, too, after Eloy Room made 15 saves — one off the World Cup record — to earn a draw with Ecuador. It concludes Group E play on Thursday against the Ivory Coast in Philadelphia at the same time Ecuador is playing Germany in New York.

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It is quite rare for sitting monarchs to come through the area. Queen Ann of Romania attended the dedication of the Liberty Memorial, which is where Kansas City is holding its World Cup FanFest, in the 1920s, while King Gustav XVI of Sweden made a stop in the small Kansas town of Lindsborg when he was passing through the Midwest in the 1970s.

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.





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1 man dies after being shot June 9 in Kansas City, Missouri; police working to identify person of interest

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1 man dies after being shot June 9 in Kansas City, Missouri; police working to identify person of interest


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is working to identify a person(s) of interest in a June 9 shooting that led to the death of one victim.

Police were called around 6 a.m. on June 9 to the area of Independence and Monroe avenues in Kansas City, Missouri.

Responding officers found an unresponsive man behind a residence in that area. He was transported to the hospital for life-threatening injuries, per KCPD.

Police were notified Friday night that the shooting victim died.

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KCPD said Saturday “detectives have made headway identifying subject(s) of interest.”

Anyone with information on the incident is encouraged to call KCPD Homicide detectives directly at 816-234-5043 or the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline at 816-474-8477.

If you have any information about a crime, you may contact your local police department directly. But if you want or need to remain anonymous, you should contact the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline by calling 816-474-TIPS (8477), submitting the tip online or through the free mobile app at P3Tips.com. Depending on your tip, Crime Stoppers could offer you a cash reward.

Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the KSHB 41 News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. Read the KSHB 41 News Mug Shot Policy.

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