Harry Gleeson
Harry Gleeson remains the only executed person to be pardoned in Ireland, and it took 76 years for it to happen. Mary “Moll” McCarthy lived in a small run-down cottage near the farm of a man named John Caesar. She was a bit of an outcast, being a single mother of 7 children by at least 6 different fathers. On November 21, 1940, Harry Gleeson was working on his uncle John Caesar’s farm when he discovered McCarthy’s body.
She had been shot twice in the face. Seven days later Gleeson was arrested for her murder. The Irish police force claimed that Gleeson was the father of McCarthy’s seventh child. Though the child had died in infancy, police claimed that Gleeson killed McCarthy to keep his uncle from finding out about the illegitimate child. Gleeson believed his uncle would cut him out of his inheritance if he discovered the truth.
There was little evidence against Gleeson. Prosecutors claimed that the time of death was the evening of November 20, but medical records suggested that the time of death was sometime on November 21. Gleeson had an alibi for the November 21, but not for the night before. Harry’s aunt and uncle were never called in to testify on his behalf despite the fact that they were considered to be very trustworthy by the police. Prosecutors claimed that John Caesar bought ammunition for his shotgun which matched the bullets used to kill McCarthy, but the registration at the shop told a different story.
Gleeson was found guilty and hanged in February 1941 despite the claims from his family, his lawyers, and numerous members of the community that he could not be guilty. For decades, people investigated the case, with some going as far as to claim that it was a member of the police that had fathered McCarthy’s seventh child, killed her, and accused Gleeson to protect himself. Finally, on December 19, 2015, President Michael D. Higgins signed the only posthumous pardon in Irish history for Harry Gleeson, and it was presented to his family during a ceremony the following year.
