'Remarkable' work by Reynolds praised

THE “REMARKABLE” work of Albert Reynolds in helping create the peace process has not been properly recognised, according to former head of the Northern Ireland civil service Sir Kenneth Bloomfield.

Sir Kenneth paid warm tribute to the former taoiseach in Belfast yesterday where Mr Reynolds’s autobiography received its Northern Ireland launch.

Sir Kenneth said that in 1974 he had hoped the Sunningdale powersharing executive would come into full flower but unfortunately that administration collapsed. The next big experiment was the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 but that was rather a “unilateral” arrangement which unionists opposed and which led to “a sense of beleaguerement in the unionist community”.

When he considered the later peace process contribution of Mr Reynolds, working often in tandem with then British prime minister John Major, he thought of a politician who believed in establishing strong foundations to build the “architecture” of agreement. Sir Kenneth said Mr Blair and Bertie Ahern did great work in finalising the agreements that led to the current political dispensation. Referring to the Downing Street Declaration he added: “But not enough attention has been paid to the remarkable work done some years earlier by Albert Reynolds and John Major.”

He paid tribute to Mr Reynolds for putting “the healing of the wounds in our society” as his highest priority.