There would have been no peace deal in the North without the heroic efforts of Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid.
The powerful assessment of his role in the peace process was revealed in a new documentary to be screened by RTÉ this past weekend.
Fr Reid, who has consistently played down his vital role, was described by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams as the ‘midwife’ of the peace process while Clonard Monastery in West Belfast served as the ‘cradle’ of peace.
Dr Martin Mansergh, who served as a key link between the Government and the paramilitaries, gave his view that “Fr Reid was the most important person in the entire peace process”.
The revealing documentary, entitled The Secret Peacemaker, shed new light on Fr Reid’s role in convincing the Provisional IRA to give up their armed campaign and enter negotiations as well as his role in supervising the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
Now 80 and in declining health, Fr Reid also revealed the story behind one of the most devastatingly horrific images of the conflict when two soldiers were beaten and murdered in West Belfast in 1988.
Fr Reid recalled how he was threatened to be shot dead as he huddled beside the soldiers to protect them and later anointed their bodies after they had been murdered.
"I simply say, ‘I represent the next person to be killed. That’s who I represent,” he says of his role in ending violence. The peace we have now is the Lord’s answer. It’s a miracle what we have."