Father Alec Reid

Born: August 5, 1931; Died: November 22, 2013

Father Alec Reid, who has died aged 82, was an Irish priest who acted as a broker between the IRA and the British Government during the Northern Ireland peace process and was later an independent witness to the decommissioning of the IRA's weapons. A photograph of Fr Reid smeared in blood and kneeling over the body of a murdered British soldier in 1988 became one of the most iconic images of the troubles.

For nearly 40 years, he was based at Clonard Monastery in Belfast near the Falls Road, a frontline in the battle between Nationalists and Unionists. He was a member of the Redemptorist order and was ordained a priest in 1957. He served as a parish priest in Dundalk, Galway and Limerick before moving to Clonard.

While at the monastery, Fr Reid first came to prominence when he visited Gerry Adams, then vice president of Sinn Fein, to try to persuade the IRA to release a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment. His attempt was unsuccessful, but the priest remained in contact with Mr Adams and facilitated talks between the now president of Sinn Fein and the nationalist SDLP leader John Hume in an attempt to move towards a renunciation of violence. Fr Reid then acted as a conduit between the republican movement and the British government, enabling talks which eventually led to the peace agreement of 1998.

Before the peace agreement, Fr Reid had witnessed some of the worst of the troubles including the day that two British soldiers, Derek Wood and David Howes, were attacked after interrupting a Republican funeral on March 19, 1988. The men were dragged from their car, beaten and shot by the IRA.

Fr Reid recalled seeing the men being put face down on the ground. "I got down between the two of them on my face, and I had my arm around this one and I was holding this one by the shoulder," he said. "When I was lying between the two soldiers I remember saying to myself, 'This shouldn't be happening in a civilised society.'

"Somebody came in and picked me up and said, 'Get up, or I'll shoot you as well,' and he said, 'Take him away.' Two of them came on either shoulder and manoeuvred me out. I can remember the atmosphere. You could feel it. I knew they were going to be shot. I can remember thinking, 'They are going to shoot these men.'"

Fr Reid said one of his strongest memories of the day was when a woman put a coat over one of the victims and said "he was somebody's son". "I felt I had done my best to save them, but I had failed to save them," he said. "I felt it was a tragedy that I had tried to stop and didn't."

After the peace process was underway, Fr Reid acted as one of the witnesses to the decommissioning of the IRA's weapons. In recent years, he had also been acting as a mediator between different groups of nationalists in the Basque region of Spain.

The US Consulate said Fr Reid had helped lay the foundations for the ongoing peace process. "Those close to Fr Reid can be proud of his role," said the statement, "and his legacy offers a profoundly powerful inspiration to all of us."

Fellow Redemptorist Father Gerry Reynolds said Fr Reid felt he had to become involved. "Living between the Shankill and the Falls as he did, at the hub of so much conflict, he felt he had to be involved in trying to make an end of it," Fr Reynolds said.

"He said the only hope is in the dialogue, because the dialogue makes space for the spirit of God to work in human history. That was always at the heart of Alec's conviction. He had a great sense of grace of God."

However, Fr Reynolds also remembered darker days when Fr Reid would confide his worries about the peace process and when his confidence in its success would waver.

He said Fr Reid was particularly shaken by the Shankill bomb 20 years ago and, later, by the murder of his loyalist contact and friend, Ray Smallwoods.

"He was very courageous. He did the moral imperative," Fr Reynolds said. "For Alec, he had to do the right thing. He always believed that the will for peace is in the heart of every human being. He was never scared."