Editing Michael Manning (murderer) (section)

==Murder and trial==
Manning, a 25-year-old [[Carting business|carter]] from Johnsgate in [[Limerick]], was found guilty in February 1954 of the rape and murder of Catherine Cooper, a 65-year-old nurse who worked at Barringtons' Hospital in the city.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/ireland.html|title=Eire|website=www.capitalpunishmentuk.org}}</ref> Nurse Cooper's body was discovered on 18 November 1953 in the quarry under the New Castle, Dublin Road, [[Castletroy]], where she was found to have choked on grass stuffed into her mouth to keep her from screaming during the commission of the crime.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Sentenced to Death: Saved from the Gallows|last = Wallace|first = Colm|publisher = Somerville Press|year = 2016|isbn = 9780992736491|location = Bantry|pages = 97}}</ref>

Manning expressed remorse for the crime, which he did not deny. By his own account, he was making his way home on foot after a day’s drinking in The Black Swan, [[Annacotty]] when he saw a woman he did not recognise, walking alone. "I suddenly lost my head and jumped on the woman and remember no more until the lights of a car shone on me." He took flight at this point but was arrested within hours, after his distinctive hat was found at the scene of the crime.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/sixty-years-since-dublin-s-last-hanging-1.1765531 | title=Sixty years since Dublin's last hanging | date=18 April 2014 | first=Ian | last=O'Donnell | newspaper=Irish Times | accessdate=11 May 2018 }}</ref>

Although Manning made an impassioned plea for clemency in a letter<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/40-years-ago/145084/Final-pleas-of-Limerick-man-executed.html|title=Final pleas of Limerick man executed, 60 years ago|website=www.limerickleader.ie}}</ref> to the [[Minister for Justice (Ireland)|Minister for Justice]] [[Gerald Boland]], his request was denied, although it was supported by Nurse Cooper's family. The execution by [[hanging]] was duly carried out on 20 April 1954 in [[Mountjoy Prison]], [[Dublin]] by [[Albert Pierrepoint]], who had travelled from Britain where he was one of three Senior Executioners.

[[Frank Prendergast]], subsequently [[Teachta Dála|TD]] for [[Limerick East (Dáil constituency)|Limerick East]] who knew Manning well, recalled later: "Friends of mine who worked with me, I was serving my time at the time, went up to visit him on the Sunday before he was hanged. And they went to [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] and Holy Communion together and they played a game of handball that day. He couldn't have been more normal."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/features/referenda/death/tonyconnelly1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403070534/http://www.rte.ie/news/features/referenda/death/tonyconnelly1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 April 2008|title=RTÉ News Interactive :. Death Penalty Referendum|date=3 April 2008}}</ref>

Manning left a wife who was pregnant at the time of the murder. His body was buried in an unmarked grave in a yard at Mountjoy Prison.