Troubles body publishes first murder report as IRA victim's daughter says inquiry gave her 'serenity and light'

From the Newshound archive · first published 23 September 2026 · last updated 24 September 2026.

Anne Frances O'Kelly described a "sacred and transformative" hospice meeting with investigators as the moment her family's decades of grief lifted, after the ICRIR published its first-ever report into a Troubles killing. The 124-page report found the 1977 murder of her father Rory O'Kelly, a DPP solicitor shot dead at Lyttle's Bar in Coalisland, County Tyrone, was "one of a series of carefully planned attacks by the Provisional IRA". Investigators could not identify those responsible but confirmed O'Kelly was targeted because of his work prosecuting cases for the state.

Rory O'Kelly, 59, was the fifth person connected to the administration of justice murdered by the Provisional IRA, with the aim of undermining it through terror.

Three ICRIR investigators, including chief commissioner Sir Declan Morgan, travelled to a Birmingham hospice to share findings with Roger O'Kelly as he lay dying of cancer in October 2025.

Anne Frances said she and her brother Roger were "moved into a space of serenity and light, all anger taken away" — Roger died weeks after the meeting.