Should anyone still be in doubt about the importance of a robust process for dealing with the legacy of our troubled past, they need only read the reaction of Anne Frances O’Kelly on learning new details of her father’s murder almost half a century ago.

Solicitor and SDLP founding member Rory O’Kelly was shot by a Provisional IRA gunman while sitting in a back room of Lyttle’s Bar in Coalisland, Co Tyrone in March 1977.

The 59-year-old, who had acted as an election agent for civil rights campaigner Austin Currie, was targeted because of his role as a public prosecutor.

His killing is the subject of the first report published by the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) since being set up in controversial circumstances by the 2023 Legacy Act.

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