Irish priest who waved bloodstained handkerchief on ‘Bloody Sunday’ dies
BELFAST (Reuters) – Edward Daly, the priest who waved a white bloodstained handkerchief at British troops on “Bloody Sunday” in 1972, died on Monday at the age of 82, the Irish Bishops’ Conference said.
Daly was seen worldwide on television in one of the most enduring images of the Northern Irish conflict as he carried a dying youth past British troops. The young man was among a crowd of Catholics into which troops opened fire and killed 13 following a protest march.
Daly spent 19 years as Bishop of Derry and decades as a peace campaigner.
His testimony about Bloody Sunday helped garner public opinion to the side of the protesters.
British authorities rejected his claim at the time, but a 2010 inquiry concluded the civilians were killed without justification and prompted an apology from Prime Minister David Cameron.
The 1972 killings changed the course of the “Troubles” that erupted in the late 1960s and boosted the Irish Republican Army’s violent campaign for Northern Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom and become part of the Republic of Ireland.
A peace deal brokered in 1998 largely ended the conflict, but not until more than 3,600 died. Catholics, who wanted a united Ireland, were pitted against predominantly Protestant Unionists, who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Daly campaigned for innocent victims of the conflict, including the “Birmingham Six,” wrongly convicted of bombing two pubs in the city. In one of Britain’s most notorious miscarriages of justice, the six spent 16 years in jail before being acquitted in 1991.
“Bishop Edward will be remembered as a fearless peace-builder,” Archbishop of Ireland Eamon Martin said in a statement. “His untiring advocacy ... earned him respect from some, suspicion from others.”
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who has admitted being an active Irish Republican Army member on Bloody Sunday, said Daly had been “a constant right through the course of the last 40 odd years,” noting he had been critical of the IRA and all other sides in the conflict.
James Brokenshire, Britain’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said: “He was an iconic figure in civic life, and he will long be remembered as a cleric who worked tirelessly to promote peace for all.”