Edward Daly

Edward Kevin Daly (5 December 1933 – 8 August 2016) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest and author. He served as the Bishop of Derry from 1974 to 1993. Daly took part in several civil rights marches and events during the Troubles. He came to wider attention during Bloody Sunday in January 1972, waving a blood-stained white handkerchief as he escorted a group carrying a mortally wounded protestor after British troops opened fire on demonstrators. Early life and ministry Daly was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, but raised in Belleek, County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. His parents were Tom Daly and Susan Daly (née Flood), who were shopkeepers; he was the eldest of six siblings, including Tom Daly junior, who became a prominent politician. Daly attended and boarded at St Columb's College in Derry on a scholarship, after which he spent six years studying towards ordination to the priesthood at the Irish College in Rome. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Derry in Belleek on 16 March 1957. His first appointment was as a curate in Castlederg, County Tyrone. In 1962, he was appointed a curate in St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry, with responsibility for the Bogside area of the city. He left briefly in the 1970s to serve as a religious advisor to RTÉ in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland but spent the majority of his career in Derry. Bloody Sunday (1972) During his time in Derry, he took part in the civil rights marches; he had first-hand experience of the Battle of the Bogside in 1969, the early years of the Troubles, internment, and the events of Bloody Sunday, in which British soldiers fired on unarmed protesters on 30 January 1972, killing 14 people. Daly became a public figure after he was witnessed using a blood-stained handkerchief as a white flag in an attempt to escort 17-year-old Jackie Duddy, a wounded protester, to safety. Duddy died of his injuries soon after and Daly administered the last rites; he later described the events as "a young fella who was posing no threat to anybody being shot dead unjustifiably". Duddy's family gave Daly a photograph of Jackie, which Daly always kept on his desk. He also gave an interview for the BBC in which he insisted, contrary to official reports, that the protesters were unarmed.