2 CommentsWhen Newry man Robert McGladdery walked to his death in Crumlin Road Gaol in 1961 he wasn’t to know that he would be the last person to face the noose in Ireland. Perhaps it was better that way.
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In October of that year in Downpatrick courthouse 26 year old McGladdery was found guilty of the murder of Newry woman Pearl Gamble on 28 January 1961.
Miss Gamble had been to a dance at the Henry Thompson Memorial Orange Hall on the Downshire Road in Newry the night before her death.
There are many reports on the murder in circulation but suffice to say here that Robert McGladdery also had been at the dance and when questioned had admitted dancing with her during the course of the night. What exactly happened afterwards will likely only ever be known to himself.
When McGladdery was transferred to the condemned man’s cell in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast it was several weeks before the sentence was carried out. The cell, a sparse open room just contained a table and chair and a bed. Two guards would also have been present in the cell at any given time, to ensure that the prisoner didn’t self harm!
It was only the night before that McGladdery would have heard that he was due to hang the following day. His mother and a clergyman would have been the last visitors to his cell bar the hangman Harry Allen. Mr Allen’s career as a hangman spanned 41 executions and he assisted at 53 others. Reputedly he always wore a bow tie at the executions as a sign of respect and claimed he always slept peacefully on the nights before and after a hanging!
At 8am on Wednesday 20 December 1961 Robert McGladdery was led the short walk to his fate, the last of 17 men to have met the same fate in Crumlin Road Gaol, bringing to an end the violent tradition of executions on the island of Ireland. From that day on capital offences have always been commuted to a life sentence.
McGladdery is buried in an unmarked grave close to the perimeter wall of Crumlin Road Gaol.
