Father Alec Reid
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Father Father Alec Reid C.Ss.R. |
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|---|---|
| Born | 5 August 1931 Nenagh, County Tipperary |
| Died |
(aged 82) Dublin, County Dublin |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Redemptorist Priest |
| Known for | Role in Northern Ireland peace process |
| Awards |
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Father Alec Reid, C.Ss.R. (5 August 1931 – 22 November 2013) was an Irish Catholic priest noted for his facilitator role in the Northern Ireland peace process, a role BBC journalist Peter Taylor subsequently described as "absolutely critical" to its success.
Born and raised in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Reid was professed as a Redemptorist in 1950, and ordained a priest seven years later. For the next four years, he gave Parish Missions in Limerick, Dundalk and Galway (Esker), before moving to Clonard monastery in Belfast, where he spent almost the next forty years. The Redemptorist Monastery at Clonard stands on the interface between the Catholic Nationalist Falls Road and the Protestant Loyalist Shankill Road areas of west Belfast.
In 1988 Reid delivered the last rites to two British Army Royal Signals corporals killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) – an event known as the "corporals killings" – after they drove into a Republican funeral cortège in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A photograph of his involvement in that incident became one of the starkest and most enduring images of the Troubles. Unknown until years later, Reid was carrying a letter from Gerry Adams to John Hume outlining Adam's suggestions for a political solution to the troubles. In the late 1980s Reid facilitated a series of meetings between Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume, in an effort to establish a 'Pan-Nationalist front' to enable a move toward renouncing violence in favour of negotiation. Reid then acted as their contact person with the Irish Government in Dublin from a 1987 meeting with Charles Haughey up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In this role, which was not public knowledge at the time, he held meetings with various Taoisigh, and particularly with Martin Mansergh, advisor to various Fianna Fáil leaders.
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