Bishop Edward Malesic and Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost will kick off the St. Patrick’s Day festivities with Mass on March 17.
Bishop Malesic will celebrate with members of the United Irish Societies of Greater Cleveland at 10 a.m. at St. Colman Church, 2027 W. 65th St., Cleveland. Bishop Woost will preside at a 9:30 a.m. Mass for the Irish American Club East Side at SS. Robert and William Church, 367 E. 260th St., Euclid.
This year’s UIS honorees will participate in the liturgy at St. Colman. The 2026 honorees are Thomas Mackin, parade grand marshal; Mary Catherine “Midge” Gannon, Irish Mother of the Year; Bob Crawford and Donna Leary, parade co-chairs; and Maire O’Leary Manning, Hibernian of the Year.
Mackin and his wife Bridget are the parents of seven and grandparents of four. He is a retired paramedic. The Mackins are members of St. Christopher Parish in Rocky River, where he is an usher and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.
Gannon and her husband Brendan have three children and five grandchildren. They are longtime parishioners at St. Patrick Parish, West Park. She worked at the East Ohio Gas Co. and was a librarian at St. Patrick School, West Park for 30 years before retiring.
Crawford and his wife Sheila are members of St. Dominic Parish in Shaker Heights. He recently retired as chair of the social studies department at Beaumont High School in Cleveland Heights.
Leary and her husband Alex have two children and two grandchildren. She is a graduate of St. Colman School and St. Stephen High School. She is retired after working in the hospitality industry and for the American Red Cross.
Manning, a longtime member of St. Clement Parish in Lakewood, is active in numerous Irish organizations. She and her late husband Richard have one daughter. She previously worked for the Cleveland Department of Public Utilities.
Three other parishes in the diocese that are named for the patron saint of Ireland will mark his feast day with Masses, also.
Father John Pfeifer, pastor of St. Patrick Parish, 4427 Rocky River Drive in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood, (founded in 1848) will celebrate its 178th anniversary with Mass at 9 a.m. on March 17, followed by a breakfast in Thorpe Hall.
Father Michael Gurnick, pastor of St. Patrick Parish, 3602 Bridge Ave., Cleveland, (founded in 1853) will celebrate Mass at 9:30 a.m. that day, followed by a breakfast and raffles.
St. Patrick Parish, 16550 Rock Creek Road, Thompson, (founded in 1854) will have a Mass at 8:45 a.m.
The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist will have Masses at 7:15 and 11 a.m. (not noon) on March 17.
After the Masses at St. Colman and SS. Robert and William, Bishop Malesic and Bishop Woost will join parade participants at East 18th Street and Superior Avenue where Bishop Malesic will bless the parade, which steps off at 1:04 p.m. Approximately 10,000 participants in 125 units will parade west along Superior to West Roadway for one block and then northeast onto Rockwell Avenue, before disbanding at Rockwell and Ontario Street. The theme for the parade is “Celebrating 250 Years of Irish and Irish-American Contributions to the Land of the Free.”
Click here to learn more about the honorees and the parade.