The Irish priest Alec Reid played a major role in the Irish peace process. Most time he remained in the background.
His role as a facilitator became publicly known, when in September 2005 Alec Reid and the Methodist minister
Rev. Harold Good confirmed, that the IRA had decommissioned their arms with the two church men witnessing the
destruction.
For years Reid has been involved in the Basque / Spanish peace efforts. Up to now he remained silently in the background
as well. But with the mass arrests of the leadership of the Basque party Batasuna in Segura on October 4th,
he decided to appear before the public with his views on the conflict and its resolution.
The interview was conducted by two Basque journalists Gari Mujika
(GARA)
and Xabier Martin
(Berria)
.
|
Brought up in Ireland in County Tipperary, Reid spent almost 40 years in the Redemptorist Clonard monastery in Belfast.
In the late 1980s, Reid facilitated meetings between Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and SDLP leader John Hume.
Reid then acted as their contact person with the Irish Government in Dublin from 1987 up to the Good Friday
Agreement in 1998.
The interview is a translation of the Spanish language version, published in
GARA
.
>>>> Download the English translation (PDF, 167 kB) <<<<
|
|