DUBLIN: Bishop Edward Daly, who was pictured waving a white handkerchief in the defining photograph of Northern Ireland’s 1972 “Bloody Sunday” killings, died on Monday aged 82, the Catholic church said.

Daly waved the handkerchief as a symbol of ceasefire as he walked out ahead of a group attempting to carry the fatally injured demonstrator John “Jackie” Duddy to safety.

Bloody Sunday is one of the seminal events of the three-decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles.

Thirteen demonstrators on a civil rights march in Londonderry, also known as Derry, were shot dead by British army troops. A 14th later died of wounds.

In 2010, British prime minister David Cameron issued a formal, state apology for the “unjustified and unjustifiable” killings.

Daly, who was near the 17-year-old Duddy when he was shot and gave him the Last Rites, died on Monday after a short battle with cancer, the current Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown said in a statement.

“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,” he said.

He was always vocal in his opposition to violence from any quarter.

Daly also made waves in 2011 by saying there should be a place for married priests as a way to ease the Roman Catholic Church’s problems.

Daly was inherently shy but was “propelled into the headlines ... for that iconic image,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2016