Peace process ‘like a never-ending hurling final’

A BELFAST-BASED priest who witnessed the IRA decommissioning yesterday said working for peace was like playing in a hurling final that never ends.

Fr Alec Reid, who grew up in Nenagh, was named Tipperary Person of the Year in honour of his decades of work in brokering peace.

The Redemptorist priest said: “I have often said working for peace is like playing in a Munster hurling final that goes on forever.”

He said the award ceremonies were like a break in the match, where you stepped to the sidelines for a rest.

Fr Alec Reid was presented with a bronze sculpture by artist Jarlath Daly to mark his crucial role in the North peace process in a ceremony in Dublin.

The former SDLP leader, John Hume, who worked with Fr Reid in securing the 1993 Downing Street Declaration and the Good Friday Agreement, and Conor Lenihan, Minister of State at the Foreign Affairs Department, were present as he was awarded the sculpture in Dublin’s Red Cow Hotel.

“I count it as a great honour to be chosen as Tipperary Person of the Year. Tipperary, like all counties of Ireland, is a great county because of its people. I grew up among them, learned my faith from them and learned hurling from them,” Fr Reid said.

“In peacemaking there are a lot of difficulties and setbacks and concerns.”

He said the award would be a source of encouragement in his future work in places such as the northern Basque region of Spain.

The priest revealed he got his determination to keep going in the faces of challenges on the hurling fields of Tipperary during his youth.

During the past four years, Fr Reid has spent much of his time in Spain, having been invited to lend his expertise gained in Northern Ireland to the problems in the Basque Region. Fr Reid helped broker the ceasefire with Basque separatist group ETA.

Michael Fenton, the Tipperary Association chairman, said Fr Reid has been acclaimed both at home and abroad for the pivotal role he played in the peace process.

“Fr Reid believed that the Church had a responsibility to intervene directly in the conflict to help make peace a reality for all the suffering people. From that time on, he was involved in a number of special peacemaking ministries to foster dialogue and friendship between the divided communities in Belfast and a special ministry that involved ongoing efforts to move the conflict away from the streets and onto the conference table,” Mr Fenton said.

In 1961, as a young priest, Fr Reid was appointed to Clonard Monastery in Belfast where he witnessed the violence and suffering which erupted in the North.