Henry 'Harry' Gleeson, who was executed on April 23, 1941, for a crime he did not commit, has been laid to rest in his native Co Tipperary after his body was removed from the grounds of Dublin's Mountjoy Prison. 

Gleeson was wrongly convicted of the November 1940 murder of Moll McCarthy in February 1941 and was executed for his alleged crime that April.

The Tipperary man, who maintained his innocence throughout the trial, was hanged in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison and buried there after unsuccessful appeals for clemency.

His final words were: "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."

In 2015, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins granted the first-ever posthumous Irish presidential pardon for Gleeson following decades of campaigning from Gleeson's family through their "Justice for Harry Gleeson" group.

The Irish State finally admitted that it had gotten the wrong man and that someone else had shot McCarthy in the neck and face and gotten away with the crime. 

Following the presidential pardon, work began to remove Gleeson's remains from the grounds of Mountjoy Prison and relocate them to his native Co Tipperary.

However, the innocent man had been buried on the east side of Mountjoy Prison along with many other executed prisoners in a section of land measuring 1,000 square meters.

As RTÉ News notes, British authorities had kept good burial records at the prison until Irish independence in 1922, but the Irish State's record-keeping was less commendable in the early days of independence. 

Subsequently, there were no headstones or markings indicating where Gleeson had been buried when he was put to death in April 1941. 

To further complicate matters, a significant amount of tarmac had been laid between the prison building and the outer walls, covering the bodies of Gleeson and other executed prisoners. 

Ireland's Department of Justice pledged to do everything in its power to reinter Gleeson's remains to his native Co Tipperary. 

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Excavations began in January and Gleeson's remains were identified on June 21.

On July 4, a formal death notice about Gleeson was posted on RIP.ie, announcing that his remains would finally be reinterred.

"The family of Henry (Harry) Gleeson rejoice in announcing the final homecoming of his remains to his native Galbertstown," the notice says.

"Having languished in an unmarked grave in Mountjoy Prison for eighty-three years wrongly convicted and hanged for a murder in which he 'had neither hand act or part.'

"Harry's remains can finally rest in peace having been declared an entirely innocent man. Betrayed by the very system that should have protected him it fell to others to restore his good name and bring him home."

The notice added: "Harry, may your innocent soul enjoy the happiness of Heaven knowing that truth and justice finally prevailed."

At 1 pm on Friday, July 5, Gleeson's family finally brought him out of Mountjoy Prison following an 83-year wait for justice. 

Gleeson's remains were transported in a new coffin and accompanied by different generations descended from his brothers and sisters. 

Prison officers at Mountjoy stood in silent respect as the hearse carrying the coffin exited the prison grounds. 

Very emotive to be in Mountjoy as the remains of our relative Harry Gleeson is led away.

He went in there in 1941 an innocent man and is leaving that way.#Harrygleeson pic.twitter.com/xKnLi5XTj3

— Timmy Hammersley (@TimmyHammersley) July 5, 2024

Gleeson was laid to rest at St. Mary's Cemetery Holycross in Co Tipperary on Sunday, July 7 following a funeral mass at Holycross Abbey, with his nephew Tom and niece Kitty leading a large crowd of mourners. 

Hundreds of people attended the funeral mass, with parish priest Fr. Celsus Tierney describing the occasion as a "sad day and also a joyous day."