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Hanged for Murder: Irish State Executions
Between 1923 and 1954 the Irish state executed twenty-nine people convicted of murder. Almost all executions were carried out in the hanghouse of Mountjoy Prison by members of the Pierrepoint family. The often shocking and fascinating stories of these men and one woman have been largely forgotten. Their remains lie behind prison walls as strange testaments to an abandoned form of punishment.
Among those buried in Mountjoy are Bernard Kirwan, convicted of killing his brother, though a body was never conclusively identified. Kirwan’s presence in Mountjoy Prison and his execution inspired Brendan Behan’s play The Quare Fellow. Also there lie Henry McCabe, convicted of killing six people in a house in Malahide, and Annie Walsh, convicted of murdering her husband for compensation money. Few had ever been convicted of a crime before each was convicted of the most serious of all. The voices of some seem to whisper from the unmarked graves that it was not they who carried out the crime as doubts remain about the safety of some of the convictions.
Among those buried in Mountjoy are Bernard Kirwan, convicted of killing his brother, though a body was never conclusively identified. Kirwan’s presence in Mountjoy Prison and his execution inspired Brendan Behan’s play The Quare Fellow. Also there lie Henry McCabe, convicted of killing six people in a house in Malahide, and Annie Walsh, convicted of murdering her husband for compensation money. Few had ever been convicted of a crime before each was convicted of the most serious of all. The voices of some seem to whisper from the unmarked graves that it was not they who carried out the crime as doubts remain about the safety of some of the convictions.
- GenresTrue CrimeHistory
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2014
A collection of 29 cases where the accused has been executed by the state, cases which I wasn't aware of because they are all Irish cases, interesting cases and there is one where it seems the accused may have been innocent.
December 16, 2013
A review copy was provided by The Collins Press and Killeen PR in return for an honest review
It's amazing. You can pass by something many times in your life, thinking you know everything there is to know when in reality, you know nothing. If you mentioned "Mountjoy" to someone they'd associated the name with the jail but not much else. The fact that 29 people were hanged there came as a complete surprise to me.
As surprising as that was, the following information made me do a double take:
"Thomas Delaney was found guilty of the murder of seventy-four-year-old Patrick Horan in Banagher, count Offaly"
I'm sorry.....what!! Someone was murdered...murdered, in my small, back end of nowhere country town! Not only that but the victim has the same last name as me! I read the story about 5 times before I could actually believe what I was seeing. This led me to a Google search which was disappointingly unrewarding. Unfortunatly a lot of the older members of my family have passed away so my next step will be the library. I feel that thanks to this book I've discovered a whole side of my town and family that I never knew before.
As for the rest of the book, it was never going to be an easy read. Its incredibly harrowing and it took me a long time to get through it. In many of the cases it seemed that the most important thing was that someone was punished, regardless of whether the right person was punished. In some cases there was little or no evidence that led the accused to the gallows.
These people, today remain buried in the Grounds of Mountjoy in unmarked graves. Hopefully in the future the bodies can be excavated and moved to a proper burial site.
When someone commits an atrocious crime the phrase "They should be hanged" often comes quick to the tongue of some. This book brings home the real meaning of this phrase. It's incredible that death penalty was only officially abolished in 1990. As human beings we should never wish or want it to return.
Overall this was a fascinating look at an area of history I never even knew existed.
August 31, 2014
This is an interesting aspect of Irish history that I knew nothing about. In 29 chapters, the case of every person executed for murder by the Irish state is described. At times, it's almost like you're reading from court documents, but this treatment suits the material. There's no need to embellish or dramatize these cases. The facts are laid out in a straightforward way - we're told how the murder unfolded, and how the trial of the accused played out.
Some of the cases feature murderers whose attempts to cover their own tracks would be laughable if their crimes weren't so horrific. One chapter tells the bizarre and gruesome story of Cornelius O'Leary, who killed his own brother, chopped up his body, and hid the parts within a 700 metre radius of his family's cottage.
In some instances, the person executed may well have been innocent. The most disturbing case is that of Harry Gleeson, who was found guilty of murdering a local woman after a farcical trial. The author describes the case in his detached, factual style, but by the end I had no doubt that there was some kind of conspiracy to scapegoat Gleeson.
The book starts in 1923, in the chaotic aftermath of the Irish Civil War, and ends in 1954. At times it's like social history, as we get a glimpse of the social mores of the period in the background of each case. Having said that, it wouldn't be out of place in the True Crime section either.
Some of the cases feature murderers whose attempts to cover their own tracks would be laughable if their crimes weren't so horrific. One chapter tells the bizarre and gruesome story of Cornelius O'Leary, who killed his own brother, chopped up his body, and hid the parts within a 700 metre radius of his family's cottage.
In some instances, the person executed may well have been innocent. The most disturbing case is that of Harry Gleeson, who was found guilty of murdering a local woman after a farcical trial. The author describes the case in his detached, factual style, but by the end I had no doubt that there was some kind of conspiracy to scapegoat Gleeson.
The book starts in 1923, in the chaotic aftermath of the Irish Civil War, and ends in 1954. At times it's like social history, as we get a glimpse of the social mores of the period in the background of each case. Having said that, it wouldn't be out of place in the True Crime section either.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews