Murder of Marlhill, New Inn (c.1940)

HelenV

cofy wrote: »

That's great news, I'm looking forward to it.

+l

johnconnors

Great news Kieran. I know you've had met many obstacles along the way. But thankfully, at long last, the true story of events will be revealed for all to see. Congradulations too to the ''Justice for Harry Gleeson'' committee. I know that they too put in many long hours of hard work.
It's interesting to go back to the beginning of this thread and read the contributions, and to see how the story progressed over a few years. ''Well done'' again ., Kieran.

kfagan99

Very kind of you to say so, John, thank you for encouraging me along the way. Kieran.

grey_so_what

kfagan99 wrote: »

My book The Framing of Harry Gleeson will be published in April 2015 by Collins Press.

Good for you Kieran,

Will look forward to reading your book!

:):)

Lawstudent007

kfagan99 wrote: »

My book The Framing of Harry Gleeson will be published in April 2015 by Collins Press.

Will that be a fictional book? Looking forward to it. Well done!

kfagan99

The Framing of Harry Gleeson (previous title Hung Out To Die) a factual account of the events leading up to the murder of Moll Carthy and the subsequent hanging of Harry Gleeson is due to be published at the end of April by Collins Press.

Johnboy1951

Thanks for the update ....... looking forward to it

TheCowboy

newstalk report

President Higgins to pardon man hanged for murder in 1941

Harry Gleeson was tried and convicted for killing Mary 'Moll' McCarthy

President Michael D Higgins is to officially pardon a man who was given the death sentence for a murder 75 years ago.

Harry Gleeson will be pardoned after an independent review found that there were 'deficiencies' in his conviction.

Xenophile

Great News

The following text has been taken today from the RTE website.

The Government has announced it will pardon a man who was hanged for murder over 70 years ago.

Harry Gleeson was executed for the murder of Moll McCarthy, who was shot dead in Tipperary in November 1940.

He was hanged for her murder on 23 April 1941.

The Department of Justice reviewed the case following a submission last year from the Irish Innocence Project, based at Griffith College in Dublin.

The review, conducted by Senior Counsel Shane Murphy, accepted new evidence which merited a pardon being granted to Gleeson.

Mr Murphy's examination concluded that, in his opinion, a number of new matters which have come to light, combined with his assessment of the existing features of the evidence, led him to form the opinion that Gleeson's conviction was unsafe.

Gleeson will become the first recipient of a posthumous pardon from the State.

The Attorney General has advised the Government that the deficiencies in the conviction warrant the Government recommending to the President that he exercise his right of pardon.

The Government has accepted that advice.

Gleeson, a neighbour of Ms McCarthy, who was a single mother of seven, reported the discovery of her body.

Five months later he was hanged for her murder.

The Government said it deeply regrets that a man was convicted and executed in circumstances now found to be unsafe.

cnoc

kfagan99 wrote: »

The Framing of Harry Gleeson (previous title Hung Out To Die) a factual account of the events leading up to the murder of Moll Carthy and the subsequent hanging of Harry Gleeson is due to be published at the end of April by Collins Press.

Will the new book be a reprint of the original?

Lawstudent007

Well done to all who supported and helped in clearing Harry Gleeson's name. Special mention to Sean Delaney from the Justice for Harry Gleeson Group, Kevin Gleeson, and the Irish Innocence Project. Also, kudos to Marcus Bourke, RIP, who summed up the trial transcripts and highlighted the anomalies which made it a lot easier to prove Harry's innocence.

Harry can finally rest in peace!

HelenV

Lawstudent007 wrote: »

Well done to all who supported and helped in clearing Harry Gleeson's name. Special mention to Sean Delaney from the Justice for Harry Gleeson Group, Kevin Gleeson, and the Irish Innocence Project. Also, kudos to Marcus Bourke, RIP, who summed up the trial transcripts and highlighted the anomalies which made it a lot easier to prove Harry's innocence.

Harry can finally rest in peace!

Well said but wouldn't it be really nice to see his remains come home to Holycross and give the man the dignity of a burial beside his own family - surely he's entitled to that even at this late stage.

TheCowboy

HelenV wrote: »

Well said but wouldn't it be really nice to see his remains come home to Holycross and give the man the dignity of a burial beside his own family - surely he's entitled to that even at this late stage.

But they don't know where his remains are do they? i think it was ex mountjoy governer john lonergan i heard say that on radio recently

Lawstudent007

HelenV wrote: »

Well said but wouldn't it be really nice to see his remains come home to Holycross and give the man the dignity of a burial beside his own family - surely he's entitled to that even at this late stage.

His remains will be brought home to Holycross. They have a rough idea as to where Harry was buried. The Department of Justice already promised that they would facilitate in the exhumation and return of Harry's remains.

Xenophile

For those who might be interested I have posted a post on this subject under Religion and Spirituality, Spirituality, here on boards.ie

TheCowboy

Lawstudent007 wrote: »

His remains will be brought home to Holycross. They have a rough idea as to where Harry was buried. The Department of Justice already promised that they would facilitate in the exhumation and return of Harry's remains.

Didn't know that. When are his remains coming to Holycross?

Johnboy1951

Lawstudent007 wrote: »

His remains will be brought home to Holycross. They have a rough idea as to where Harry was buried. The Department of Justice already promised that they would facilitate in the exhumation and return of Harry's remains.

Presumably they will need to do some DNA tests to be sure they are moving the correct remains ....

kfagan99

My book The Framing of Harry Gleeson has just been published by Collins Press, Cork. It is available in bookshops this week. it costs €12.99 and is in paperback.

The Woodcock

kfagan99 wrote: »

My book The Framing of Harry Gleeson has just been published by Collins Press, Cork. It is available in bookshops this week. it costs €12.99 and is in paperback.

Really looking forward to reading this.

HelenV

kfagan99 wrote: »

My book The Framing of Harry Gleeson has just been published by Collins Press, Cork. It is available in bookshops this week. it costs €12.99 and is in paperback.

A long threatening comes at last. Well done Kieran. Wishing you every success.

johnconnors

Copy came in the post yesterday morning. ''Do not disturb'' for two days. The whole story laid bare, like an open book. That was Harry Gleeson's last request to Sean McBride. That day has finally arrived. To understand what this means to people is difficult to describe. As soon as I got the book, I visited my uncle, now in his eighty's. [ Some might recall him from a recent ''Ear to the Ground'' episode, talking about the life of farm labourers] . He has followed this case all his life, since first meeting with Harry's brother Paddy in the 1950's. ''I never thought I'd live to see this day come'', he told me. His joy was indescribable. Can you imagine what this means then, for his relatives and relations. Well done and congratulations, Kieran. And well done to my neighbour Sean Delaney and the hardworking people of the ''Justice for Harry Gleeson'' committee.

kfagan99

Thank you all for taking notice of my book. In my confusion I forgot to put my name to my last post. And yes, I agree in spades, if this sad tale has a hero, it has to be Sean Delaney who worked away diligently and diplomatically, winning over people with his reasoned arguments. When my grandchildren are older, I hope to tell them about how an historic wrong was righted, and how much a man called Sean Delaney did to achieve that. In that, I'm not taking away credit from the other members of the Justice for Harry Gleeson group, nor the Innocence Project because they did trojan work too. And I'm personally very grateful to the members of this forum who encouraged me to persist with writing this book. I'm obliged to you all. Kieran Fagan.

TheCowboy

Not everyone likes it http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/anger-as-harry-gleeson-book-names-fathers-of-victims-illegitimate-children-31152712.html

Johnboy1951

TheCowboy wrote: »

Not everyone likes it http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/anger-as-harry-gleeson-book-names-fathers-of-victims-illegitimate-children-31152712.html

A bit of controversy should be no impediment to sales

TheCowboy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

A bit of controversy should be no impediment to sales

bad feeling in the area i would say. people will say it is easy to name the dead they cannot sue

cml387

The Irish Times has an archive piece from an interview with Sean Mc Bride in 1977. He was the defence barrister and was sure that the judge had made up his mind from the start as to Harry's guilt.
He also believed the appeal was stitched up by the appeal court judges.

He also writes that Harry asked him to come to Mountjoy before he was hanged. McBride imagined he might be told that he'd done it after all (he says it happened before).
Harry just said that he wanted to assure Mc Bride that he was innocent and to thank him for his efforts.McBride says that nobody there, not the warders, himself or the governor, though that he was guilty.

callaway92

Can't wait to have a read of this myself. Very sad story

The Woodcock

I purchased the book on Friday and read it over the weekend. I approached "The Framing of Harry Gleeson" as someone who was reasonably familiar with the case having read Marcus Bourke's book when it was first published. I also saw the two TV documentaries on the case when they first aired - Thou Shalt not Kill on RTE in the 1990s and Ceart agus Coir on TG4 some nine years ago. So from that point of view I was mostly interested in any new facts and information that were not in the public domain until now.

There are a lot of new strands to the case brought forth in the book. The broader context of IRA activity at the time is spelled out, particularly in relation to the Devereux affair. [Anyone who wants to know more about this case can read an article from the Tipperary Historical Journal here]. The relationship between the Gardai and local IRA elements was undoubtedly a murky one. Ostensibly they were enemies but it's clear that Superintendent O' Mahony had some connection with the IRA men who are named as the real killers. That brings O' Mahony's role in the case into sharper focus. He was the one who gave sworn evidence about an alleged conversation between Harry Gleeson and Moll's children after the murder. It's fairly clear that some or all of this conversation was fabricated by O' Mahony to implicate Gleeson. One wonders why O' Mahony acted as he did. Was he protecting the IRA men or was he simply under pressure from his superiors to get a quick conviction?

New information which came to light after Marcus Bourke's book was published is included, but the case is a very complex web and there are still question that will remain unanswered - the author acknowledges this in the preface. I won't go into detail so as not to spoil things for those who have yet to read the book. Suffice to day that The Framing of Harry Gleeson undoubtedly underlines the fact that Harry Gleeson was innocent. And although it names those believed to be responsible for Moll's death, as well as the fathers of her children, hard evidence connecting these men to the murder is unlikely to come to light at this stage. We can only rely on various strands of local knowledge and information to give a somewhat fuzzy picture of what really happened. There are a lot of parallels with the Missing Postman case in Co. Waterford from the same era. Police corruption and local collusion prevented the truth from emerging in both instances. At least in the case of Harry Gleeson, his innocence has now been established as he had wished before he died.


P.s. Here is a recent piece from Michael Clifford of the Irish Examiner on the book [url][/url]

kfagan99

Thank you for a reasoned and fair-minded reaction to my book The Framing of Harry Gleeson. Kieran Fagan

FURET

kfagan99 wrote: »

My book The Framing of Harry Gleeson has just been published by Collins Press, Cork. It is available in bookshops this week. it costs €12.99 and is in paperback.

Please make it available in Kindle format. It's 2015.