Fr. Alec Reid C.Ss.R., (RIP) died 22nd November 2013
The Funeral of Fr. Alec Reid, ‘the quiet peacemaker’, took place on Wednesday November 27th, at 12 noon, in Clonard Monastery. You can watch it on the archives on www.clonard.com
Earlier Announcement:
We wish to announce the death of our colleague Fr. Alec Reid. He died peacefully in a Dublin Hospital at 6.40am this morning (Nov. 22nd).
We extend our deepest sympathy to his family, friends and those who got to know him as a Redemptorist in the various roles and ministries he held. He will be especially remembered for his work in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Click here for a BBC News report on his life, ministry, and his death.
Click here for his funeral notice on www.rip.ie, or as it appears in the papers.
Funeral arrangements are as follows:
Remains will be reposing at Marianella Chapel, 75 Orwell Road, Dublin 6 on Saturday 23rd from 2pm – 8pm and Sunday 24th from 1pm – 8pm.
Monday 25th Mass in Marianella Chapel @ 11am.
Following Mass Fr. Reid will be taken to Clonard Church, Belfast.
Remains will be reposing at Clonard Church on Monday 25th from 4pm – 9pm and Tuesday 26thfrom 9am – 9pm.
Tuesday 26th 7:30pm Ecumenical Service of Gratitude for Fr. Reid’s life and ministry in Clonard Church. Follow live on www.clonard.com
Wednesday 27th Funeral Mass @ 12 noon in Clonard Church. Follow live on www.clonard.com
May he rest in peace.
The death has occurred today, November 22nd, of Fr. Alec Reid, an Irish Redemptorist, who played a major role over many years in working for peace and reconciliation in the North of Ireland. Fr. Alec was 82 years of age. May he rest in peace.
His role was usually in the back-ground, but in March 1988 he was photographed
kneeling beside the body of a british soldier who had just been shot dead. This image went all over the world a day or two later when the photographer reluctantly allowed it to be published. It has become one of the iconic images from that time in Ireland.
The story was told in a special BBC programme in March 2013, 25 years after the events, entitled ’14 Days’. ”Watching 14 Days on BBC Northern Ireland last night was the most powerful sermon on following Jesus I have experienced in a long, long time”, wrote one person from Fitzroy Presbyterian community. As Rev Ken Newell, the now-retired minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian, says
“I saw in the photograph Alec himself looking straight into the camera, and I just saw a man of compassion, a man of prayer, a man of faith. It’s an astonishing picture because one of the soldiers was lying semi-naked in the shape of a cross, and his body was blood-splattered. And in that I saw an amazing link with the crucifixion of Christ.”
Fr. Alec was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary in 1931. We understand that he played hurling with the Tipperary Minors before leaving home to join the Redemptorist Congregation in August 1949. He was professed as a Redemptorist in 1950 here in Esker, Athenry, and was ordained priest seven years later in Cluain Mhuire, Galway. He ministered for most of his life in Belfast, and for a period in Dundalk. He passed away peacefully in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin on November 22nd, 2013.
Click here to see an RTE programme about Fr. Alec Reid, entitled ‘The Secret
Rev. Harold Good (left) and Fr. Alec Reid (Right) after receiving the "René Cassin" Human Rights Award from the Basque government.
Peacemaker’.
Check out BBC for their programme ’14 Days’, shown in March 2013.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. (May his faithful soul be on the right hand of God!)
A Redemptorist Ireland Website
To Dissenting Priests (quote from C.S. Lewis): “It is your duty to to fix the lines (of doctrine) clearly in your minds: and if you wish to go beyond them you must change your profession. This is your duty not specially as Christians or as priests but as honest men. There is a danger here of the clergy developing a special professional conscience which obscures the very plain moral issue. Men who have passed beyond these boundary lines in either direction are apt to protest that they have come by their unorthodox opinions honestly. In defense of those opinions they are prepared to suffer obloquy and to forfeit professional advancement. They thus come to feel like martyrs. But this simply misses the point which so gravely scandalizes the layman. We never doubted that the unorthodox opinions were honestly held: what we complain of is your continuing in your ministry after you have come to hold them. We always knew that a man who makes his living as a paid agent of the Conservative Party may honestly change his views and honestly become a Communist. What we deny is that he can honestly continue to be a Conservative agent and to receive money from one party while he supports the policy of the other.” –from Christian Apologetics by C.S. Lewis, Easter 1945. (Reprinted in God in the Dock pp. 89-90)
He was a bold Tipperary man who spoke out fearlessly against injustice on both sides. My condolences to his fellow Redemptorists at this sad time. RIP.