A Redemptorist priest, described as a key Northern peacemaker, was one of five people conferred with honorary Doctor of Laws degrees yesterday.
At the conferring by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, Mr Seán Ó Foghlú said Fr Alex Reid "was a key person in securing dialogue at the critical stages".
Fr Reid, a Dubliner, was sent to Belfast in 1962 and from 1969 onwards became involved in peace efforts. "He believed that the role of the church was to take the conflict off the streets and take it on to the conference table," Mr Ó Foghlú continued. Fr Reid considered the principles of peace were to respect the dignity and the human rights of all the people involved in the conflict.
Fr Reid was still working for peace, this time in the Basque Country.
Speaking after the ceremony, Dr Reid said he thought the Belfast Agreement would come to fruition. "I believe that, by the grace of God and as a result of the prayers and the sufferings of the people in the North, this will be a success, sooner rather than later."
Dr Reid said he thought it had been a mistake for politicians and church leaders not to have spoken to the IRA earlier. "I believe now that if we had spoken to the republicans in 1969, 1970, we would have avoided most of what happened afterwards."
The other recipients are: Mr Paddy Caffrey, who made a major contribution to pharmaceutical engineering and industrial development; Mr Richie Healy, chairman of the National Council for Educational Awards in 1988-95; Ms Eileen Moran Brown, chancellor of Cambridge College in Boston, Massachusetts; and Ms Carmel Naughton, who oversaw the completion of the National Gallery's Millennium Wing.