Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds pictured with Fr. Brian D’Arcy. The Berkley Court Hotel, Lansdowne Road, Dublin
FERMANAGH cleric Fr Brian D’Arcy, CP, the rector of the Graan, was celebrant for the funeral Mass on Monday of former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, a long-standing friend of the Belnaleck man.
It was the Reynolds family’s wish that he would do so.
Speaking to the Herald yesterday (Tuesday) morning, he revealed how his friendship with, ‘the man who stopped the killing’ began in 1966 when Brian was ‘a po-faced’ cleric in Dublin.
“I was a 20-year old cub from Belnaleck who had no money, no nothing. We were sent out to walk up and down O’Connell Street to mix with people because I had a Roman collar on me.
“In the Gresham Hotel I met this man I didn’t know. It was Albert and there was a man with him that I did know.
“They said they were going to set up a (showbiz) paper to rival New Spotlight and they were looking for people to write, but there would be nothing for it. I explained that I wasn’t supposed to read newspapers or listen to the radio or go out anywhere.
“They said, ‘we will get you a transistor’, so I had this illegal transistor under my pillow all those years and that is how I kept up to date.”
And, as he told the congregation, he wrote under the pseudonym, ‘Hughie’, Mr Reynolds having suggested the name when told that Brian’s father name was Hugh.
And, he also told mourners how, in the early 1990s, ‘mysterious letters’ would be left in the Graan for collection.
He amplified on this for the Herald: “They had Albert’s name on them, and that went on for two years.
“I never asked about them nor was I told, but one night, I got a phone call. It was Albert. He was Taoiseach then. ‘Are you coming to Dublin?’ I said to him, no and he says can you make it down south, I want to show you something. It would be great if you could come tonight.
“I jumped in the car and drove straight to government buildings. Albert brought me into a room and said, ‘I am supposed to sign this agreement. It’s nearly there and I want a northerner’s opinion before I sign it.”
It was the Downing Street Agreement!
While Fr D’Arcy was reluctant to go into detail about any ‘tweaks’ he had suggested to the document, he revealed how, at Mr Reynolds removal last Saturday night, ‘a frail old man’ had come up to him and shook his hand.
He said to me: “Do you remember the night you changed the Downing Street Agreement? I was the civil servant that Albert brought in to the room, and I will never forget the tears in your eyes when you read it.”
The late Albert Reynolds had many strings to his bow, among them ownership of 12 ballrooms which gave much-needed employment to showbands, and music critics such as Fr D’Arcy.
But, as Fr D’Arcy stated in his homily, ‘he was the leader who risked everything for peace’.
He told mourners that Albert Reynolds always had an interest in northern politics.
“Some say his interest in the north suddenly appeared when he became Taoiseach. Well, I beg to differ.
“As a promoter in showbands, he was in constant contact with the north, with people on both sides. In showbands, there was no religious difference.
“For years before he entered politics, we had spoken passionately about how violence was destroying our beloved country.”
Fr Brian also formally thanked the others who were involved with Mr Reynolds, namely John Major, John Hume and Gerry Adams (all of whom were present), the late Fr Alec Reid, ‘and all the others who were so unfairly criticised at the time for trying to bring peace’.
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