RTÉ documentary on Nenagh's Fr Alec Reid

RTÉ One will premiere the feature length documentary, The Secret Peacemaker at 10.30pm on Easter Sunday, the extraordinary true story of Irish priest Fr Alec Reid’s secret mission to help stop the killing in Northern Ireland.

The new documentary tells the inspiring story of the agreement’s earliest and unlikeliest of architects, the Tipperary-raised Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid.

In 1988, Father Reid was first seen by the world as he was photographed trying to save the life of a dying British corporal in the horrific aftermath of an IRA funeral. The haunted face of Father Reid as he delivered the Last Rites became symbolic of the thirty-year long conflict. But unknown to most, the photograph also captured a secret peacemaker at work. In Fr Reid’s jacket pocket were the first documents of a fledgling plan that would help end The Troubles.

Alec Reid (1931 - 2013) grew up in Nenagh and was a prominent hurler with the CBS and Éire Óg before joining the priesthood.

Moving in 1961 to Clonard, Belfast, he went on to become a key player in the northern peace process, working with John Hume and Gerry Adams on talks that led directly to the Downing Street Declaration of 1993 and consequently the ceasefire of 1994.

He was also an independent eyewitness to the arms decommissioning process in the north, and he also helped to broker peace in the Basque region of Spain.