The search for the remains of a Tipperary man wrongly hanged for murder has been suspended.
38-year-old Harry Gleeson from Holycross was convicted of the murder of Mary ‘Moll’ McCarthy in 1941 but was exonerated 74 years later.
Mr Gleeson is still the only person to have been given a posthumous pardon in the country, after it was decided in 2015 that he did not commit the murder he was accused of.
Since then, efforts have been underway to find his remains, but following a number of years of searching the grounds of Mountjoy Prison, the Department of Justice have said they cannot locate them.
In a statement to Tipp FM, the Department says that it remains their objective to do what can be done to identify and return Harry’s remains to his family.
However, the search effort has been disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and what they say are the “many demands arising for the relevant agencies involved.”
Between 2017 and 2019, the Department spent €26,300 in trying to find his remains and other costs have been incurred at prison level in terms of equipment rental, services and ground works.
Nothing has been spent on the search this year.
The statement goes on to say that they are looking into how best to reactivate the search.
The other agencies involved in that process are the Irish Prison Service and Dublin City Council.
