The late and much loved Bishop Edward Daly
THE first anniversary of the death of Bishop Edward Daly was marked at the weekend with a Mass and vigil in Derry.
There are also plans to develop a garden of reflection around a commemorative monument erected in the Bogside in the days after the cleric’s death.
Bishop Daly, who died on August 8 last year, became the subject of one of the most enduring images of the troubles when he was filmed waving a blood-stained handkerchief as he led a group carrying the body of Bloody Sunday victim Jackie Duddy in 1972.
A native of Belleek, Co Fermanagh, he served as bishop of Derry from 1974 until 1993 and was outspoken in his condemnation of paramilitary and state violence.
Thousands of people from all over Ireland filed past his body as it lay in state at St Eugene’s Cathedral.
Several hundred people attended a commemorative Mass and service at St Eugene’s Cathedral on Saturday evening at 7 30 pm.
Vincent Coyle, who helped erect the Bogside monument and organise the commemoration, said Bishop Daly was the “priest of the civil rights movement and helped so many people in ways that were never made known”.
He added that work on a new garden of reflection around the monument is expected to start in the coming months.
Fr Edward Daly waves a white handkerchief as an injured man is carried away on Bloody Sunday
“It will be overlooked by the (Bogside Artists’) civil rights mural.
“This is a community effort and will provide people with a space in which they can connect again with Bishop Daly,” Mr Coyle said.
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