Page 22 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2025

PEOPLE
The Heart of HIBERNIA
story by Lynn Lofton
photos by Linda Ishee
and courtesy of
James Edward Bates Photography
The Hibernia Irish Society announces the names of its Grand Marshal and Colleen for
the 2025 celebration of St. Patrick’s day. The
festivities, including a parade beginning at 2 p.m., take place on Saturday, March 15. A 5K run and one mile walk begin at 9 a.m. in front of city hall. Registration begins at 8 a.m. Prizes will be awarded in different catego- ries.
The Grand Marshall is Gulfport native and respected community leader and educator Justice David M. Ishee, who has been a member of the Mississippi Supreme Court since 2017. Earlier in his distinctive legal career, Ishee served for 13 years on the Mississippi Court of Appeals; was municipal judge for Pascagoula, Ocean Springs and Gulfport; and youth court judge for Jackson County.
He has been an adjunct professor in criminal litigation and business law at the University of Mississippi and Mississippi College School of Law.
Born in 1963, the Gulfport native earned a Bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He and his wife, Linda Lang Ishee, are the parents of a daughter, Lauren, and members of Trinity Methodist Church.
Colleen Maggie Mosher was born and raised on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where she graduated from Ocean Springs High School with High Honors. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Mississippi State University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.
After college, she returned to the Coast where she started 22 | March 2025
her career at the Chevron Pascagoula Refinery as a process engineer. Over the past 11 years she has held various
roles at the refinery and is currently a process engineer supervisor.
Mosher’s great-grandmother, Florence Walshe Hoffman, immigrated from County Galway Ireland in the early 20th Century. Her grandmother, Connie Tisdale, later moved to Biloxi where she became a founding member of the Hibernia Marching Society. The family has resided
in Biloxi since the 1920s and have held various positions within the community.
The Colleen has been an active Hibernia member for the past two years including volunteering on the board
as the social media chair and the St. Patrick’s Day 5K
race chair. She is a life-long member of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi and several professional engineering organizations. She was awarded a U.S. patent (# 11,439,969) for her technical innovation. She has been married to Mark Mosher since October 5, 2024.
Now known as the Hibernia Irish Society, the group began in 1978 as the Hibernia Marching Society, which was started by Dr. John O’Keefe. His daughter-in-law, Celeste O’Keefe, says many Irish came to America during the potato famine in Ireland and spread out across the country.
“All Irish descendants have been a big influence on the Coast,” she said. “St. Patrick’s Day events are big for Coast Irish. On St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish.”
Before 1978, there were informal gatherings held by several spirited Irish Americans at Mary Mahoney’s
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