Sir, – It was good to see Erin McGuire's piece ("How Harry Gleeson was wrongly hanged for murder in 1941", April 6th) about the contradictory opinions that were in play about Harry Gleeson just before and after his execution in Mountjoy in 1941 having been framed for the murder of his neighbour Mary "Moll" McCarthy.
Those who don’t know much about the case, however, might assume from the article that the debate at the time was a balanced one, with, on the one hand, Supt Mahony’s condemnation of Gleeson as “a sadist”, and, on the other, Fr John Kelly’s epistolatory assertion of Gleeson’s enormous dignity and forbearance in the lead-up to his hanging for a murder he did not commit.
Unfortunately, as I know from having studied the case in order to write a novel about it (The Dead Eight) most of what was said and written about Gleeson (such as Supt Mahony's letter) was hostile as well as untrue, whereas almost nothing like Fr Kelly's letter was in circulation either publicly or privately at the time. Gleeson's vilification by Supt Mahony was part of the process by which the miscarriage of justice was finessed and his execution secured. But then, as we know from the cases of the Maguire Seven, the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and others, poisonous fantasy and "fitting up" always come as a pair. – Yours, etc,
CARLO GÉBLER,
Enniskillen,
Co Fermanagh.