Dr Edward Daly publishes memoirs

The former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, has written an autobiography which will be published next month. Mister, are you a Priest? Jottings by Bishop Edward Daly, will be published by Four Courts Press and launched in Derry.

The book covers the retired bishop's life up to his appointment as Bishop of Derry in 1974. Dr Daly is known worldwide for his presence in Derry on Bloody Sunday 1972.

Pictures of his courageous attempts to get the injured and dying out of the line of fire waving a bloodstained white handkerchief were published in newspapers and broadcast worldwide. Dr Daly grew up in Beleek, Co Fermanagh, and attended St Columb's College in Derry before going to the Irish College in Rome.

His first years as a priest were in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, and in 1962 he was appointed a curate at St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry. The Bogside was part of his parish and on his first day there a boy said to him "Hi, mister, are you a priest?" Hence the title of his autobiography.

Father Daly was deeply upset by the living conditions of people in the Bogside. This prompted him to take part in civil rights marches in the city in the late 1960s.

In 1974 he was appointed briefly as a religious adviser at RTE and it was while there he was appointed Bishop of Derry in 1974. He retired in 1993 for health reasons.

Excerpts from his autobiography will be published in The Irish Times next month.