Newark's 74th annual St. Patrick's Day parade fell on a Friday, but Deputy Grand Marshall Maggee Miggins was sure plenty of people would play hooky from work—or at least come by on their lunch breaks—to watch.

South Orange native and Millburn resident Miggins has become an expert on St. Paddy's Day parades of late, marching in parades across the state, starting with Belmar earlier this month and Nutley on Saturday. She'll wrap up the St. Patrick's Day season with the Union parade Saturday and the West Orange parade on Sunday.

While the Newark parade has a long and storied history, the Belmar and Nutley ones started relatively recently, which speaks to the diaspora of Irish-Americans in New Jersey. "People as they spread out and went to different counties wanted to take their Irish heritage with them, so that's why we have all the parades," said Miggins.

On the actual day of St. Patrick's Day, MIggins will be delivering loaves of Irish soda bread to her real estate clients—she's a realtor based in Maplewood—and the season of marching in parades and attending dinners to honor Irish men and women of the year will end. She's been driven by the desire to promote Irish heritage, which manifests in music, dance, literature and even attitude.

"They're very optimistic people. They always see the silver lining; there's always the rainbow. i just think there's an eternal optimism," she said.