Brigid Reynolds, who died on 2 January 2026, was one of the longest-standing and most prominent advocates of basic income in Ireland. She worked closely with Seán Healy, her life-long friend and ally, for over forty years, first as the founders and directors of the Justice Commission of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), then as the founders and joint CEOs of Social Justice Ireland (SJI). She and Seán also initiated and directed an MA programme in Social Justice and Public Policy. Throughout their careers, Brigid and Seán were full and equal partners in everything they did.
For decades, CORI and SJI promoted basic income through their many conferences and publications, through their participation in social partnership structures, and through the direct lobbying of politicians. One of their major achievements was securing the publication of a Green Paper on Basic Income by the Irish government in 2002. Their steadfast research and advocacy has been central to keeping basic income on the Irish policy agenda for thirty years, despite many disappointments and setbacks.
As an internationally respected member of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Brigid participated in BIEN’s congresses from its earliest days in the 1990s, was a founder member of BIEN Ireland (now Basic Income Ireland, where she served on the Steering Committee) in 1995, and was one of the core organisers of the BIEN Congress held in Dublin in 2008.
Brigid’s publications on basic income span three decades and include the following, all co-authored with Seán Healy: ‘Arguing for an Adequate Income Guarantee’ (1994), Surfing the Income Net (1997), ‘Basic Income – A Community and Voluntary Perspective’ (2008), and ‘Basic Income: Radical Utopia or Practical Solution?’ (2016).
Her many friends, associates and admirers remember her as a person of great warmth and humour, of steadfast commitment to social justice, and of intellectual rigour, all guided by deeply-held beliefs. For a fuller account of Brigid’s life and work, see https://www.socialjustice.ie/article/statement-social-justice-ireland-passing-sr-brigid-reynolds.
