The Framing of Harry Gleeson

In November 1940 the body of Moll McCarthy, an unmarried mother, was found in a field in Tipperary. She had been shot. The man who reported the discovery was neighbour Harry Gleeson. Although Harry had an alibi, he was swiftly convicted and hanged. This travesty of justice suited the parish priest, the Gardaí, and respectable families whose sons, brothers and husbands had fathered Moll's seven children. The investigation was hijacked and the defence compromised. Neighbours and friends felt intimidated. Moll's daughter Mary, approaching death over fifty years later, became upset and said to a nurse 'I saw my own mother shot on the kitchen floor, and an innocent man died'. Somewhere in the grounds of Mountjoy Jail lies the body of Harry Gleeson, posthumously pardoned by the State in 2015. This is the story of how and why he was framed and who the guilty parties were.

Kieran Fagan from Dublin, a retired journalist, held staff positions at The Irish Times, Irish Independent, and Sunday Tribune. For fifteen years he edited The Irish Times coverage of the release of state papers. He also worked for Carr Communications. Interest in miscarriages of justice was sparked when living in London in 1960s. Timothy Evans was hanged for murders committed by John Christie. Evans was hanged by Pierrepoint who had hanged Harry Gleeson.