In Memoriam: Mary Reid

 

Mary Reid could be remembered for many things: for the circumstances that befell her, for the circles she moved in, for the life she lead… and even for her death. But it was her interest in Perillos that brought her to our attention, and for which we will remember her.

We had the pleasure of knowing Mary Reid briefly, but she left a lasting impression on us. Mary was interested in Perillos, because of its link with St Patrick’s Purgatory in Ireland, an area she adored. But for Mary, adoration also meant a deep conviction to discover every aspect of its history, in a continuous search for the “total truth”. Together with other Irish people, she had done Raymond of Perillos’ pilgrimage from Perillos to Ireland in reverse, to celebrate the 600th birthday of the event. When she learned of the existence of the English Perillos website, she was quick to contact the organisation, so she could share her insights. It led to an initial face to face meeting on July 24, 2001.

We quickly learned that Mary had lived a turbulent life, particularly how she had been part of the “three of Vincennes”. On August 26, 1982, she together with her baby son; Mick Plunkett, former General Secretary of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, and Stephen King were arrested by the French Army in the Parisian suburb. The French Army allegedly found a “death list”, three pistols and 500 grams of explosives in the “Vincennes Three’s” apartment. The three said the pistols were for their personal protection as they believed they were in danger of being assassinated by the British Secret Service organisation MI6. After 24 hours, they were placed in French police custody. The three were first tried in Creteil and later in Paris, where the prosecution attempted to link them with the French terrorist organisation Action Directe. The three were sentenced to five years imprisonment, but were released nine months later on appeal in 1983. Mary herself stated how the date of her release, May 20, was an important day for her… just like she said the episode had shattered her life. More recently, it was learned that the man responsible for the arrest was out to carve out a name and a career for himself, whereby innocent people become the subject of his Machiavellian plans.

In 2003, disaster struck again, but this time the blow was fatal – Irish newspapers reported how Mary had died on January 29, 2003 – when her partially clothed body was discovered by a local man, on rocks on a beach at the Isle of Doagh near Clonmany, Co Donegal. Mary had been walking her dogs and had, according to the coroner’s ruling, drowned. Mary was 49. Just a week before, she had told us how she had made an important discovery into the origins of St Patrick’s Purgatory – that part of her research was left unfinished…
Her death coincided with us learning the rest of Mary’s extra-ordinary life. She was a graduate of UCD and Trinity College and had an MA in Rural Development from the University of Ireland at Galway and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster. She was a lecturer in Women’s Studies at Derry’s North West Institute of Further and Higher Education and had a large body of Irish poetry published. She was also a great friend of Donegal poet, Cathal O’Searcaigh.
She had joined the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in 1976 and was editor of the Starry Plough, the newspaper of the IRSP, until her resignation from the IRSP in 1979. For a time, she was married to Cathal Og Goulding, who died in 1998, aged 75. Goulding was chief of staff of the IRA in the 1960s and 1970s. His Marxist convictions, involving the subversion of Northern Ireland politics from within rather than by violence from without, led to the declaration of a ceasefire by the IRA in 1972, and to a split in the Republican movement which spawned the Provisional IRA.
They had a son, Cathal Goulding. Later, she met Dr. Terry Robson, her partner of 12 years, and a lecturer in Magee College.

Mary’s demise was typified by controversy. Initially, it was thought that she died in a heroic effort to save one of her dogs from drowning during bad weather along the shore. But certain details suggested to her family that certain things might not be what they seemed to be: the T-shirt she had been wearing was torn apart on her body, and no sign has ever been found of her second dog. In short, the family learned that the scenario of her death as indicated by the police was void of any hard evidence – suggesting that the police should at least have held an enquiry into the circumstances of her death, rather than label it an accidental drowning. The possibility of suicide was initially not ruled out by the family, but once the family was over the initial shock of her demise, the family tried to reopen the case of her death.

Often, when people die, you learn the bad things; in the case of Mary, you learned the good things – another sign of her total lack of self-importance, and how she felt the common cause eclipsed the ego.