The Catholic Diocese of Derry says Daly died peacefully on Monday after a long illness.

Daly was a priest in Londonderry when British paratroopers opened fire on a Catholic civil-rights protest march on January 30, 1972, killing 13 people.

The killings helped fuel Northern Ireland's sectarian violence, in which some 3,000 people died.

Daly became a hero by administering last rites to victims on the streets amid the mayhem of the Catholic Bogside district. A photo of the priest waving a blood-stained white handkerchief as he tried to help a dying 17-year-old become one of the event's iconic images.

"There's scarcely a day that passes when I don't think about that day. It's haunted me all these years," Daly said 25 years later.

An initial British inquiry outraged Northern Ireland Catholics with its finding that the British troops' gunfire followed IRA firing and that the victims could have been armed.

A 12-year investigation found in 2010 that the soldiers were not under attack and fired without justification on unarmed civilians, many of whom were fleeing or aiding the wounded.

"Bishop Daly served, without any concern for himself, throughout the traumatic years of the Troubles, finding his ministry shaped by the experience of witnessing violence and its effects; through this dreadful period he always strove to preach the Gospel of the peace of Christ," the current bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown said.

Source:

• Crux
• Zenit
• Image: Belfast Telegraph
  

An earlier investigation, the Savile inquiry, concluded that soldiers of the Parachute Regiment had opened fire on unarmed Catholic demonstrators in the town of Derry without provocation.

To date no charges have been filed against those responsible for the killings on January 30, 1972.

However it is unlikely that anyone found guilty of the killings would serve long jail sentences, since under the Good Friday agreement of 1998 all crimes committed prior to that time have a de facto amnesty.

The announcement of a new inquiry provoked tensions that survive in Northern Ireland despite the arrival of a stable peace agreement. Unionist leaders questioned why the Bloody Sunday killings should receive special treatment, when violence by the Irish Republican Army is not being reinvestigated.

John Kelly, whose brother Michael was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, said: "It certainly is good news, but it was something we were expecting anyway. My view on it at the time was these soldiers should have been arrested straight away and prosecuted on what came out of the Saville report. But certainly after hearing what we heard today it's a step in the right direction because myself, my family and most of the families want prosecutions."

In 2010 British Prime Minister David Cameron issued an apology in the House of Commons, describing what had happened as "both unjustified and unjustifiable".

Police officials in Northern Ireland said they could not say when the new investigation would begin because it would require about 30 detectives working full-time for at least three years.

Sources:

The Guardian

Associated Press

Image: Global Research

"Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, major decisions must be made," Daly writes in his new book A Troubled See, Memoirs of a Derry Bishop.

Daly, who as a priest, and waving just a white handkerchief, protected the wounded from the British Army's bullets on 'Bloody Sunday', is still a respected figure in Ireland, says he is worried about the decreasing number of seminarians and that many good priests are leaving the priesthood, in major part due to the requirement of living a celibate life.

Priesthood forces men to choose between God and family, Daily said and many good men, well qualified candidates for priesthood find the celibacy rule a personal sacrifice that goes too far.

Daily said he found it heart-breaking that during his time as a bishop so many priests and seminarians left the ministry because they found a celibate life too difficult to live.

He is also concerned about the number of ageing clergy, who are at a time of their life that they should be retired.

"There will always be a place in the church for a celibate priesthood, but there should also be a place for a married priesthood in the church," Daly wrote.

"I think priests should have the freedom to marry if they wish. It may create a whole new set of problems but I think it's something that should be considered," he says.

At 77, Daly is now retired, and the Catholic Church in Ireland was quick to point out that Daly was talking in a private capacity.

Recently Bill Morris, Bishop of Toowoomba, Australia was forced to retire early, in part for comments he made about priestly celibacy that were misrepresented by a disaffected group in the diocese.

Celibacy has been a requirement for Catholic priests since the 11th century.

Married Anglican priests have long been welcome to join the Catholic Church priests, and Pope Benedict XVI recently established the Ordinariate, a legal structure inside the Catholic Church to welcome many hundreds of Anglican priests who want to be Catholic but maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• The Guardian
• BBC
• Image: Wikipedia