On his eightieth birthday in 2011, he fell critically ill, suffering from kidney failure, and thereafter spent long periods in hospital.

[3] In 1975, with Ballymurphy priest Des Wilson, Reid sought to intercede in the increasingly deadly feud between the Official IRA and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

Brought together in Wilson's Springhill home, representatives of each organisation eventually agreed a ceasefire, with the clergymen chairing regular incident meetings.

[8] In the late 1980s, Reid facilitated a series of meetings between Gerry Adams and John Hume, in an effort to establish a 'Pan-Nationalist front' to enable a move toward renouncing violence in favour of negotiation.

In this role, which was not public knowledge at the time, he held meetings with various Taoisigh, and particularly with Martin Mansergh, advisor to various Fianna Fáil leaders.

[11] Reid was involved in controversy in November 2005 when he made comments during a meeting in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church concerning the Unionist community in Northern Ireland.

[12] When the loyalist activist Willie Frazer made remarks that Catholics had butchered Protestants during the Troubles, Reid angrily responded: "You don't want to hear the truth.