'All anger has been taken away' - says daughter of solicitor murdered by IRA, as report published

The daughter of a solicitor murdered by the IRA in 1977 has said a meeting where she and her brother learned the details of their father's death moved them into a "space of serenity and light, all anger taken away".

It comes as the legacy body set up to investigate Troubles cases published its first report , external , examining the shooting of 59-year-old Rory O'Kelly, who was targeted because he worked for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The murder, which happened in Coalisland, County Tyrone, was examined by the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The investigation into his death was requested by O'Kelly's now deceased son, Roger, who met ICRIR staff last year alongside his sister Anne Frances O'Kelly and Roger's wife.

The meeting, which included ICRIR chief commissioner Sir Declan Morgan, happened just before Roger died from cancer in a hospice in England in October 2025 and was set up to share the investigation's findings.

In a statement, Anne Frances O'Kelly described the meeting as "sacred and transformative".

She added: "Everyone present was transported 50 years back to the hour and place of our father's death."

She said she "would never have expected to know this sort of release," by the end of the meeting.

"I can never thank members of the ICRIR enough for working so hard to piece together the facts of the death of our father."

Sir Declan, said the 124-page report is a "significant moment", two years after it began operating.

O'Kelly was a father-of-five who studied for the priesthood before becoming a solicitor and moving from Coalisland to Bangor when he began working for the DPP.

He was also a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

He was shot by a gunman at Lyttle's Bar, where he had gone to attend a funeral.

The ICRIR investigation focused on information recovery, as a review of material indicated prosecutions were unlikely due to an absence of witnesses and forensics.