Fr Alec Reid, who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland, has died aged 82 in a Dublin hospital.
During the 1980s, he secretly acted as a conduit between the IRA and politicians. He was instrumental in bringing about a 1994 ceasefire that led to peace talks and served as one of the witnesses who confirmed the decommissioning of IRA weapons in 2005.
Fr Reid is remembered as the priest who gave the last rites to two British army corporals, David Howes and Derek Wood, who were killed after they drove into a republican funeral.
In a BBC documentary earlier this year marking the 25th anniversary of that period of killings, Fr Reid recalled: “When I was lying between the two soldiers, I remember saying to myself, ‘This shouldn’t be happening in a civilised society.’ That motivated me or encouraged me to keep trying to get away from this kind of society where this kind of thing could happen.”
The image of Fr Reid praying over the stripped soldier stretched out in crucified form became one of the most powerful and harrowing images of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Continue reading