St. Margaret Church Holding St. Patrick's Day Mass

St. Margaret Church will hold a St. Patrick’s Day Mass 9 a.m. Saturday including the choir for the St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale.

“It will have a very Irish theme,” said St. Margaret Pastor Monsignor John O’Keefe. “There is also a reception after that is over.”

St. Margaret will also take its customary place within the Rockland Count St. Patrick’s Day Parade 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Pearl River. That group includes students and faculty from the St. Margaret School, the color guard and O’Keefe. They were in the first battalion last year and are now in the fifth.

O’Keefe said in previous assignments, he has marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parades in New York City, Yonkers and White Plains among others.

“(Pearl River) is the most exciting parade,” O’Keefe said. “People are not as enthusiastic in others. You can go for blocks in them and nobody is there. This parade, people are on lawns and in tents. Everybody knows each other. It goes through the right neighborhood.”

O’Keefe said he does not know if Cardinal Timothy Dolan will march in the parade, or where he will be if he does.

“He was invited because it is the 50th anniversary of the parade,” O’Keefe said “He was invited before he became Cardinal and became super busy. Now he is almost a rock star.”