![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_Rachel-Callaly-and-Joe-OReilly.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe 6ft 4in murderer was honoured at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, Co Laois, after completing his Open University course in Business earlier this month<\/p>\n
13:00, 31 May 2026Updated 13:06, 31 May 2026<\/p>\n
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Rachel Callaly and Joe O’Reilly<\/p>\n
Wife killer Joe O’Reilly celebrated graduating his university course behind bars with his dedicated girlfriend in attendance.<\/p>\n
The 6ft 4in murderer was honoured at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, Co Laois, after completing his Open University course in Business earlier this month. His devoted partner Nikki Pelley was among those who was invited to the ceremony along with another member of his family.<\/p>\n
Evil O’Reilly, 54, who murdered mother-of-two Rachel Callaly, 30, at her home in the Naul, Co Dublin<\/a> in 2004, also recently had a family visit where he got to spend time with his parents, Ms Pelley and other loved ones in a neutral venue within the jail. A source said: “O’Reilly celebrated completing his Open University course last week and Nikki and a family member attended the ceremony.<\/p>\n “He was delighted to get to share the special occasion with them. Nikki is very devoted to him and visits him almost every weekend.<\/p>\n “He got the qualification in Business and has spent a number of years studying it.” The source added: “Nikki and O’Reilly’s parents also visited two weeks ago under a Section 39, which is kind of like an open visit in the waiting room.<\/p>\n “While prison staff are present, they keep their distance. It’s generally held in a natural area and gives the prisoner and their family more privacy and is a bit more intimate.”<\/p>\n The source added: “O’Reilly likes to keep himself busy and when not doing his Open University course, he works in the prison tuck shop. It is so busy due to the high prisoner numbers, he is kept going that’s for sure.<\/p>\n “It’s very much a trusted job and he has had it for about four years now. He is by all means a model prisoner. Apart from work and college, he likes to work out and keep fit and healthy. He was very much into martial arts back in the day and can often be seen practicing that.”<\/p>\n O’Reilly continues to maintain his innocence despite being locked up for almost 20 years. He pleaded not guilty at his 2007 trial to murdering Rachel but the jury accepted the prosecution evidence and found him guilty and he was jailed for life.<\/p>\n Devoted mother Rachel was found bludgeoned in a pool of blood after being beaten to death with a dumbbell. O’Reilly thought he had committed the perfect crime and even appeared on The Late Late Show with Rachel’s heartbroken parents appealing to the public to help catch her killer.<\/p>\n It emerged during his court case that he was having an affair with work colleague Ms Pelley when he decided to kill his young wife. Prior to being moved to the Midlands Prison in 2022, O’Reilly was housed in Dublin’s Arbour Hill Prison, where he worked as a cook in the jail kitchen.<\/p>\n The source added: “There has been talk for some time that he wanted to return to Arbour Hill but it’s very unlikely he will at this stage. He loved it in Arbour Hill as it is deemed a lot more quiet compared to other prisons and he loved working in the kitchen there, cooking and baking for other inmates.<\/p>\n “He has a good routine going in the Midlands now though and his family visit him almost weekly. He stays out of trouble and just gets on with it.<\/p>\n “As he has never admitted killing Rachel it’s unlikely he will get parole anytime soon.” A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said: “The Irish Prison Service does not comment on individual prisoner cases.”<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? Making us your preferred source on Google<\/a> means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Dublin Live as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link <\/a>to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content.<\/p>\n We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 6ft 4in murderer was honoured at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, Co Laois, after completing his Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,154448,43],"class_list":["post-476606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-naul","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}