England on 2 July 1918, until his period of duty ended in May 1919. Gleeson then returned once more to Ireland and his position at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. He encountered hostility from Irish republicans due to his association with the British Army; it is said that the Bishop of Cork, Daniel Cohalan, a fervent nationalist, deliberately placed Gleeson in pro-republican parishes. Gleeson was appointed curate in St Michael's Parish, Dún Laoghaire on 13 July 1920. On 4 June 1922 he attended the dedication of Étreux British Cemetery which holds the remains of 110 men of the Royal Munster Fusiliers who were killed in the defence of Étreux against superior German forces whilst acting in a rearguard action for the Great Retreat of August 1914. Thanks to his previous military experience Gleeson received an appointment as command chaplain to Dublin Army Command of the Irish Free State Army in February 1923, and was with them through the Irish Civil War. Dramatist Gleeson successfully wrote and produced two dramas. The first, depicting the first Holy Week, was entitled Bethany to Calvary, was staged at the Theatre Royal, Dublin in February 1931 and received high praise from many authorities on sacred drama. It was subsequently staged in the Abbey Theatre Dublin in April 1935. In March 1938 it was presented again during the Sundays of Lent and the Passion Week with a cast of seventy at Our Lady's Hall in Inchicore, Dublin. His second drama Rose of Battle was set in the French lines during the 1917–18 war, in which one of two soldier friends is reconciled to his faith and Church after his friend is killed but he, though badly wounded, becomes miraculously cured through the prayers of his friend's sister, a hospital nurse. The drama was widely acclaimed in 1935 when staged at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (casting Cyril Cusack), the Opera House, Cork, and the Theatre Royal, Waterford. Later life and legacy Gleeson was appointed curate of Bray, Aughrim on 18 May 1924 and became the priest of the parish on 20 January 1941. He was appointed parish priest of St Catherine's in Meath Street, Dublin on 30 August 1944. Gleeson was elected a canon of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Archdiocese of Dublin on 7 May 1956 and died on 26 June 1959. He was buried at the Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. His grave faces