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Henry "Harry" Gleeson (1897-1941)was a County Tipperary farmer who was hanged on 23rd April 1941 for the murder of Mary McCarthy, known as Moll Carthy. It was a murder he did not commit. In 2015 he is about to became the first recipient of a posthumous pardon from the State after Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald receives Cabinet approval .Prof Diarmuid Hegarty, president of Griffith College commented that “This case was a tragic miscarriage of justice and the hanging of Mr Gleeson for a murder he never committed is a dark stain on the memory of the State...However his posthumous pardon shows that justice is not blind to injustice.”

Personal Background
He was born in 1897 at the family homestead in Holycross, Thurles, County Tipperary. He was the ninth child of farmer Thomas Gleeson and Catherine (Nee Caesar). His parents were married in 1883 and they had a family of 12 children. Harry went to work for his uncle John Caesar, at Marlhill Farm, a 120 acre holding, near ,New Inn, County Tipperary. (Harry’s younger brother Patrick took over his role and inherited Marlhill after John Caeser’s death, aged 83, in 1951) By 1940 he was the farm manager. He was a 43 year old batchelor who's favourite past time was Hare coursing. His life changed on November 22nd, 1940 after had found the body of Moll Carthy lying in a field on the farm.

Background to the Murder
Moll Carthy was an unmarried mother with six children who lived in an adjoining cottage and used a well on the Caesar farm to draw water. She provided for her family through a system of barter, a thatched roof repaired by one "friend" or a sack of potatoes from another. In 1926 vigilantes tried to burn Moll and her first two children out by setting her cottage on fire. As Moll's family increased so did her ostracization in the neighbourhood. In 1939, Moll had her last child who only lived for six weeks. This appears to have been the trigger for the tragedy which followed.

Moll Carthy was lying in a field having suffered two shotgun blasts to the face.

Harry Gleeson from Co Tipperary is to become the first recipient of a posthumous pardon from the State once the move is approved by Cabinet in the weeks ahead.In April 1941 Mr Gleeson was convicted of the murder of Mary McCarthy, known as Moll Carthy. He had found her body lying in a field on the New Inn farm he managed on November 22nd, 1940.

Previously this story was documented by the late broadcaster and journalist Cathal O’Shannon (1928 – 2011) in a TV series entitled “Thou Shalt Not Kill, ” back in 1995. RTE Broadcast 24 July 2014}
 * 22 November - The 'Murder of Marlhill' takes place in Knockgraffon near New Inn, County Tipperary.

Trial
The trial was held at The Central Criminal Court in Dublin on 17th February, 1941. Crucial evidence was withheld during the 10-day hearing and it became apparent that the witnesses were being untruthful. Although the jury was recalled due to objections from the defence, Harry was still found guilty, but with recommendation to mercy. Throughout the hearing all Harry would say when asked to speak was, “I had neither hand, act or part of it.” 7,000 people had signed a petition for a reprieve, but still the appeal failed

Execution
British Hangman Thomas Pierrepoint (1905 – 1992) executed Harry Gleeson in Mountjoy jail 23rd April 1941. He was buried afterwards in the ground of the Jail.

New Inn, 1940
In November 1940 a local woman named Moll MacArthy was murdered in a field at Marlhill. An unmarried mother of seven, MacArthy was shot in the face at close range. Her neighbour, a man named Harry Gleeson, was arrested, charged and convicted of her murder, and hanged in Dublin. The Murder of Marlhill, as the event has become known, continues to spark controversy both in the local community and historiographical circles, with many maintaining Gleeson's innocence. A book and two RTE television programmes have documented the event. "'The last thing I want to say is that I will pray tomorrow that whoever did it will be discovered, and that the whole thing will be like an open book.I rely on you then to clear my name. I have no confession to make, only that I didn't do it'"

Books

 * The Farcical Trial of Harry Gleeson by Bill O'Connor (1987)
 * Murder at Marlhill-Was Harry Gleeson innocent?by Marcus Bourke (1993)
 * The Dead Eight a fictional novel by Carlo Gebler (2011)
 * ''The Framing of Harry Gleeson" by Kieran Fagan (2015)
 * Hanged for murder Irish State executions