Alec Reid

Biography

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.

After he moved to Dublin, Reid was involved in peace efforts in the Basque Country. In January 2003, he was awarded the Sabino Arana 2002 "World Mirror" prize, by the Sabino Arana Foundation in Bilbao, in recognition of his efforts at promoting peace and reconciliation. Reid and a Methodist minister, the Rev. Harold Good, announced that the IRA had decommissioned their arms at a news conference in September 2005.

Reid was involved in controversy in November 2005 when he made comments during a meeting in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church concerning the Unionist community in Northern Ireland. Reid said: "You don't want to hear the truth. The reality is that the nationalist community in Northern Ireland were treated almost like animals by the unionist community. They were not treated like human beings. They were treated like the Nazis treated the Jews". He later apologised, saying his remarks had been made in the heat of the moment. In an interview with CNN, Reid said that "The IRA were, if you like, a violent response to the suppression of human rights".

Along with Dr Martin Mansergh and the Reverend Roy Magee, he was awarded the 1995 Tipperary International Peace Award, now described as "Ireland's outstanding award for humanitarian work".

He received the 2008 Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award together with Reverend Harold Good.

On 4 July 2008 Reid was made an Honorary Graduate of the University of Ulster and made a Doctor of the University (DUniv) in their Summer Graduation ceremonies, in recognition of his contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process. On 19 April 2009 he was awarded the Reflections of Hope Award by the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. He died in a Dublin hospital on 22 November 2013.