Born in southern Ireland, Eric graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, later becoming a research chemist in Belfast before working full-time with MRA without salary.
Initially, Eric was led to care properly for his father, a widower. Later his care expanded to include striking dock-workers in London and longshoremen (dock workers) in the United States and Australia.
During the Northern Ireland “Troubles”, Eric and Irish and English friends attended weekly meetings at the Redemptorist Clonard Monastery in west Belfast where causes of the conflict were discussed in an atmosphere of honesty and forgiveness. He and three other Trinity graduates, also members of the Church of Ireland, published a statement, carried in various newspapers, apologising for the misdeeds of the Protestant Ascendancy which had seriously affected Irish Catholic and Presbyterian populations.
