Fr Alec Reid passed away on Friday, November 22nd at the age of 82. He played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process and acted as an independent witness to the decommissioning of the IRA’s arsenal of weapons. One of the most iconic images from the troubles in Northern Ireland was Fr Reid administering the last rites to a British army soldier killed in West Belfast.
Fr Reid was born in Dublin in 1931 but was raised in his mother’s hometown of Nenagh. He was professed as a Redemptorist in 1950 and was ordained as a priest in 1957. After giving Parish Missions in Limerick, Dundalk & Galway over the next few years he then moved to Clonard Monastery in West Belfast in 1961.
Fr Reid was heavily involved in facilitating the talks in 1988 between the SDLP leader John Hume and the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. Over time this helped create the conditions for the Downing Street declaration and the subsequent IRA ceasefire in 1994.
Following his great work he was then involved overseeing the IRA’s decommissioning of arms in 2005.
Fr Reid was presented with the ‘Tipperary Person of the Year’ award in 2006 by former SDLP leader John Hume and Nenagh Town Council honoured him in 2008 with a Civic Reception.
Fr Reid passed away in St. Vincent’s Hospital on Friday, November 22nd following a long illness and his funeral mass takes place this Wednesday in Clonard Church, Belfast.
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