Fr Alec Reid The contribution of Fr Alec Reid and others to the Peace Process needs to be recognised, Mattie McGrath TD has said.
Speaking at the General Liam Lynch Memorial in Newcastle, Co. Tipperary, the independent TD urged the Government and Fianna Fáil to highlight those who seem excluded from current political debates around the Good Friday Agreement, but who were instrumental in bringing it about.
Commenting on how Fianna Fáil “maintains a stony silence” about the contribution of former leader Bertie Ahern to the agreement, he added: “The same can be said about the key role that Albert Reynolds and Fr Alec Reid played. Why is it that the only reference to these individuals during the recent Dáil debate on the Good Friday Agreement came not from the Government or Fianna Fail, but from myself?”
Describing this as “historical amnesia”, he called for justice to be done to all those centrally involved in the formulation of the agreement by keeping them in mind “as we head into a period of renewed reflection on the necessity of the Good Friday Agreement”.